Buy an essay: Last Child in the Woods

The book, “Last child in the woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder”, written in 2006 by Richard Louv, offers parents and teachers practical ways to restore the interrupted connection with the nature. The book also tells how to append kids to the nature in order to grow them healthier and more attuned to life.
The author stresses that the new generation of children is totally separated from the natural world; instead of just wandering through the wood, they study it on the lessons of natural history. Nowadays children are well versed in computer games, but do not know how oak grove looks like and do not remember the smell of pine forest; the nature for them is an abstraction, not a real experience. The author argues that nature, like nothing else helps a child to gain composure; it can nourish his soul and become the source of his deep experience and creative insights.
The book of American journalist Richard Louv “Last Child in the Woods” is a passionate appeal to all parents to raise their children from a sofa, torn away from TV screens and computers and re-awaken their interest in the natural world.
The author shows that direct contact with nature is necessary for full development of the child’s physical and emotional health and that “the deficit of communication with nature” is the cause of many serious problems: obesity, aggression, attention disorders and depression. Richard Louv offers parents and teachers practical ways to restore the interrupted communications and tells about how to involve our children to nature, to raise them healthier and more attuned to life.
The introduction of the book starts with the description of the conversation happens between the author and his son. The son Matthew was interested why all memories of his father’s childhood were connected with nature (adventures in the woods, tree houses, riding the house) and his not. The author makes us understand that the current young generation misses something very important. He compares his childhood with the childhood of his sons and comes to the conclusion that the way kids understand and experience nature has changed radically within few decades. Nowadays children know about all global environmental problems (global warming, acid rain, holes in ozone layer), but they don’t have so much physical contact with nature.
The introduction mentions the topics that are discussed in the main part of the book: the increasing separation between new generation and the world of nature; social, spiritual, environmental and psychological aspects and reasons of that big change. It also explains the extreme necessity of contact with nature for healthy children development.
Richard Louv pays attention to the fact, that some years ago summer camp was a place where children could camp, hike in the woods, learn about animals and plants or tell firelight stories about ghosts. Nowadays the summer camps are usually weight-loss or computer camps. It seems that for a new generation, nature is more abstraction than reality. The writing claims that our society teachers young generation to avoid direct experience in nature.
There is also written that some studies and research suggest that thoughtful exposure of children to nature can work as a very powerful therapy in case with attention-deficit disorders and various other maladies.
Richard Louv is sure that how the young people respond to nature and how they raise their kids, will shape the conditions of our cities and homes, our lives. So, some chapters of the book explore an alternative path to the future, describing some innovative environment-based programs for schools.
At the end of the introduction of his book, the author makes a conclusion that the book is about the end of those wonderful times, but at the same time, it is also about a new possibility – to live better with nature.
So, the book is about an environmental education of children, how important is to let the child to contact with nature, how it develops mentally and physically, how nature can cure diseases.