Lara Barnas > Lara's Quotes

“The physical exercise and emotional stretching that children enjoy in unorganized play is more varied and less time-bound than is found in organized sports. Playtime—especially unstructured, imaginative, exploratory play—is increasingly recognized as an essential component of wholesome child development.”
― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder

“Nature is often overlooked as a healing balm for the emotional hardships in a child’s life.”
― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder

“An environment-based education movement--at all levels of education--will help students realize that school isn't supposed to be a polite form of incarceration, but a portal to the wider world.”
― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

“Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature.”
― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

“Time in nature is not leisure time; it's an essential investment in our chidlren's health (and also, by the way, in our own).”
― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

“This principle holds that a reconnection to the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival.”
― Richard Louv, The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age

“The Environmental Protection Agency now warns us that indoor air pollution is the nation's number one environmental threat to health- and it's from two to ten times worse than outdoor air pollution. A child indoors is more susceptible to spore of toxic molds growing under that plush carpet; or bacteria or allergens carried by household vermin; or carbon monoxide, radon and lead dust. The allergen level of newer, sealed buildings can be as much as two hundred times greater than that of older structures.”
― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

“For the young, food is from Venus; farming is from Mars”
― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder

“Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.”
― John Dewey