Playing Outside Makes Kids Smarter!

So in my reading last week I cam across this article 10 Ways Playing Outside Makes Kids Smarter.

As I read it I just nodded my head and thought, this is really pretty common knowledge.  But is it?  In the wake of Exams and AP testing for my oldest, I realized... I don't remember the last time that one of her classes went outside.

The obvious response to this is,  high schoolers don't really "play outside" anymore.  Which is very true.  However, in thinking about her classes, I thought...it would be really easy for them to take a class outside, for practical learning or even just a change of scenery. 

Many of our classes that we offer at our high schools should take advantage of the laboratory they have right outside their doors.  Shouldn't an environmental studies class, get out and study, well, the environment?  Can we learn all we need to know from a text book? 

In our zeal to pump up our kids brains and their knowledge base, we have created a system in which they are stuck at their schools and inside and the practical science of learning, has been forgotten. 

The movement that Richard Louv's "Last Child in the Woods" started was a wave of Land Trusts and other organizations creating successful outdoor education opportunities for local children, including us.  The interesting thing, is most of us started with elementary aged kids.

It makes sense, they are the ones who still find wonder in the outdoors.  They love to get dirty and climb trees and quite frankly, don't tend to roll their eyes at you in distain for asking them to walk in the woods...But are we missing a key group?

It is a great start, but I wonder how many schools are doing similar things in their upper level classes?  I was lucky enough to go to a Middle School in NH that was amazing with their outdoor education.  In 5th grade we went to "environemental camp" for a week, in 6th grade we hiked the NH coast and camped on the beach (mind you its only 18 miles long...in Maine you might not finish before HS graduation!)   The 8th grade did a marine biology course where we went before school at low tide and studied tide pools etc, as well as our North Country trip where the entire 8th grade camped for a week up north and all of our classes were held outside.

It clearly had a profound effect on me.  Not only my love for the outdoors, but also my desire to understand the natural world, and my attachment to the place in which I grew up.  I worry now, that all of our desire to create super brains in our upper level kids, are we missing a big part of the learning experience? 

The love of learning to learn, questioning, awe and wonder, problem solving.  Even practical applications of math and science in the natural world, or connecting writing and the arts with what we are surrounded by.   If we depend on classrooms and text books for all of our older kids, are they going to forget how much fun it was to climb a tree, or find an unknown creature in a tide pool.  Are they going to forget to just be, and love this place we all call home.

Maybe if we all look at this list and realize that there is value in all kinds of learning, not just in our classrooms we can all find a way back to our natural curiosity!