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Inspiring Kids with Nature, by Steven Paulsen
For a time I worked in Chicago, Illinois. More specifically, I had the opportunity to work on the Chicago City Park Lagoon Systems. The overall project was an effort to restore the man made lagoon systems back to some semblance of the great Fredrick Law Olmsted’s former design, green rooms and such. Where the project and work of restoring historic significance using exclusively native plants was a wonderful undertaking (that I am just now realizing how fortunate I was to be a part of) that is not the story I am going to tell.
As a result of the restoration work, my proximity to it, I was afforded the opportunity to work with hundreds of intercity children that had limited access to any wild land interface. These kids came from a hugely diverse and socially divergent background. Many had never been more than a couple of miles from their homes and schools. Some had literally been around the world and their families landed in America as refugees. Others had parents that were academic scholars. With all of that diversity in culture, education, and social upbringing, they had at least (by my estimation and experience) a few things they could all get behind. They all had an unbelievable desire to learn about nature. None of them were “too cool” to be interested. None of them shunned any question from the group.

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As a restoration professional I think often of the pure, unadulterated happiness that a young person can show without being conscious of their outward display.
I would meet the school children in a small reclaimed tall grass prairie in downtown Chicago. I was familiar with the Plants, Birds, Butterflies, and Dragonflies that frequented the site and would take great pleasure in teaching the names, habits, and needs in general of the species found during our “hike”. We would talk at length about fire cycles and tall grass prairies, indigenous peoples that lent their knowledge to us so we could Steward the Land. We spent time discussing the difference between “maintaining a space” and “stewarding” one. Once in a while a unique and offhand question would come out of the crowd but typically everyone had their head pointed down looking for insects in the prairie, or pointed up looking for the next butterfly or bird sighting.

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I participated in these field trips for an entire semester and enjoyed every single one. But it was not until I received a packet in the mail containing the children’s school reports documenting the trips that I understood the true value of wild land interface.
Every once in a while I stumble across these reports and they truly make me smile. I believe Kids and Nature are an undeniable fit: they want to know more about the world around them. If someone is good enough to share with them any of their anecdotal experiences, it would almost certainly help create value/values in a young person’s mind. The same is true for those of us that might not qualify as “Kids” anymore.
I think it best to encourage everyone to take the time to teach, and if teaching is too scary for your personality type, perhaps take the time to share/communicate some point of interest. In my experience it does not need to be complicated, just true. Say something, if you do not, who do you suppose will? Values are taught not inherited.
(originally published on Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens)
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