Outdoor Education Advisers' Panel

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/05/nature-deficit-disorder-richard-louvRichard Louv: Let them climb trees

The American author Richard Louv coined the phrase 'nature deficit disorder' to describe the damage caused to children who never experience the natural world. It's crucial, he argues, not to shield them from adventures in the great outdoors

It's now five years since Louv published Last Child in the Woods, a huge and unexpected US bestseller that explores what happens, to individuals and society, when kids stop going out into the natural world to play ("nature deficit disorder" he called it – the term has caught on). Great things have happened since, of which more shortly, but Louv's core question remains the same: will future generations of children have that place to go to?

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