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Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

by Richard Louv
2005, 334 pages, $13.95
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

In which of the following activities will a child learn most about nature: riding an OHV through the desert, researching the rainforest on the internet, or building a fort in the woods? Louv contends that the latter, with its intimate contact with nature, will foster self esteem, reverence, creativity, serenity, humility, survival instincts, and more.

I distinctly remember feeling peaceful while sitting beside the spring at the end of the path, and feeling awe while gazing at the stars from the backyard—I sensed my place in the universe. And I can’t tell you how many forts I built in the woods; even today my brothers claim that I built the best forts.

Unfortunately, treehouses as well as other forms of nature play are outlawed in many places today due to litigation, environmental protection, and obsession with order, not to mention the loss of natural places to urbanization.

Louv coined the term “nature-deficit disorder,” but he is not alone in his concern. Quoting numerous experts, parents, and children, and using his own insight and poetic language, Louv brings into focus a phenomenon that is altering human psyche.

One child told him, “I like to play indoors because that is where all the electrical outlets are.” Despite this pervasive outlook, Louv is hopeful that parents, educators, and society can meet the challenge. If we simply allow children to be in nature, they will often create their own relationships. Referring to a nature preserve where he was attending a charter school, one inner-city 19-year-old said, “When I come here, I can exhale.” For the sake of all humanity, we must allow our children to breathe.

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