So What, Who Cares (vol 2, issue 26) Why it will pay to be nice to fourth-graders soon
Hello! I have seen the weather maps and lo, they are horrible for much of the U.S. So let's use this newsletter to inspire you to start thinking about the outdoors-y things you'll do once the ice floes recede/the forests fail to burst into flames/the tornadoes subside/the extreme weather of your locale does not happen.
What is your definition of an enjoyable outdoors-y activity? Kayaking? Hunting? Sitting on a patio and waiting for a waiter to bring you a Pimm's cup? Share via email or Twitter.
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Do you have a third grader? One that will be in the fourth grade this fall? Be nice to that child, for they could be your ticket to free admission to any U.S. public land for a full year.
On Thursday, the White House announced the Every Kid In A Park initiative: the Obama Administration will provide all 4th grade students and their families free admission to all National Parks and other federal lands and waters for a full year, starting with the 2015-2016 school year. This initiative is being supported by the National Park Foundation -- which will award school-based transportation grants for kids to visit parks -- and by an amount of federal monies TBD. According to the press release:
The President’s 2016 Budget includes a total increased investment of $45 million for youth engagement programs throughout the Department of the Interior, with $20 million specifically provided to the National Park Service for youth activities, including bringing 1 million fourth-grade children from low-income areas to national parks.
Note, however, that the President's proposed budget is not the same thing as the actual federal budget, so the exact amount allocated for encouraging families to enjoy our national parks is still up in the air.
So what? Naturalists, biologists, park rangers and others have been voicing their concern about children's increasing disconnection from the natural world. (Note: there has been a rise in attendance at national parks, likely fueled by lower gas prices.)
The children who do not go to parks today grow up to be the adults who are disconnected from nature in twenty years -- and that could have massive implications for environmental policy, or even the future of national parks.
Several people who monitor parks attendance have also pointed out that the U.S.'s changing demographics mean that the park service needs to reach out more to non-white populations. President Obama's declaration of the San Gabriel Mountains as a national monument was positioned as a sign of Latino political power (vol 1, issue 35). It'll be interesting to see if that political power translates to park attendance.
Who cares? Tree-huggers, who would like to have trees to hug in a few decades.
Also, people who are interested in living in a society populated by healthy people may want to embrace the "Outdoors: Not just for people who enjoy bugs dive-bombing their food" mindset. Recent research has shown that children's outdoor playtime has plunged to an average of 4-7 minutes per day, and a paucity of playtime deprives children of their opportunities to build resilience and develop problem-solving skills.
And being in the outdoors is good for grown-up brains too: Being in green spaces was proven to reduce mental fatigue (i.e. the state of being easily distracted, forgetful and mentally flighty). So while those kids are spiking their outdoor-play averages in a national park, adults can be refilling their drained brains.
Related reading: I recently bought an updated edition of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv, and it's a compelling polemic for outdoor play. Louv compiles a lot of research exploring the link between outdoor exposure and mental health, which should also serve as a rallying cry for grown-ups whose only outdoor exposure is the walk between their office and wherever they've parked the car.
On a practical level: I do haul our preschooler outdoors on the regular, and I have found that the activities listed on the Take A Child Outside website are great jumping-off points for answering "What shall we do?" And Outside Magazine's Active Family Guide has been sucked into my Evernote for easy reference. If you're in the SF Bay Area, shoot me a line and we can gab about the kids + outdoors + best practices.
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Today's moment in pop culture: Are you familiar with Brini Maxwell? If not, here's your primer: She's a drag queen who is a vintage-fabulous Martha Stewart. For two glorious seasons in the mid-Aughties, The Brini Maxwell Show ran on the Style Network, and she's got a YouTube channel with lots of great segments.
I also recommend her book, Brini Maxwell's Guide to Gracious Living, as a college graduation or "congratulations on leaving a dorm room for your first shared apartment" gift.
One of the reasons I adore Brini is her insistence that you can live well with a little creativity and a lot of goodwill. She's also the queen of chic repurposing, though she'd die to be associated with crunchy types. As she says: "Ecology, compost heaps and granola -- the hippie has given us so many marvelous things, although I can't say the clothes were wonderful. But then we won't question people's personal choices."
I bring up Brini Maxwell because every time I read the blog Projectophile, I am reminded of Brini's can-do vigor, playful good taste and unswerving commitment to gracious living no matter the circumstances. I originally became twitterpated with the how-to's devised around whatever Clare can scavenge in Chicago's alleyways. However, the most recent blog entry, in which Clare called 30 different Chicago-land paint stores to ask what the weirdest thing they've ever color-matched paint for? That's what made me fall in love.
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