A new trend in preschool education has several UK parents enthralled. In these schools, the children spend almost the entire day outdoors. Rain or shine or snow, the children romp unfettered in outdoor spaces, playing with natural and found materials, learning from experience as they encounter challenges like bugs and thorn bushes.
Enthusiasts claim that nearly exclusive outdoor education (one school in Scotland doesn't even have a building, but only tents and tarps) is better for all kinds of development--not merely physical but mental. Sue Palmer, director of the Farley Outdoor Learning Nursery in Wiltshire, claims:
“The children are the healthiest you could wish to meet, we have no allergies, very little illness, their speech and language is far more advanced than others of their age because they’re outside doing things and learning to be independent. It is truly amazing.”
Amazing, indeed. With not much but gut instinct and a popular book, The Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, to guide them, outdoor preschool advocates make some broad claims. My instinct tells me they are probably right that kids in industrialized cultures don't get enough time outdoors, are asked to sit still under artificial lighting for too many hours in schools and their minds and bodies suffer for it. But my instinct also leans towards the notion that balance is a good idea too, and that a nursery school that takes place exclusively outdoors--even in foul weather--may be overcorrecting for the problem. Besides, in Wiltshire, snow may be a lovely treat in 35 (F) degree weather, but in Chicago, I'd just as soon let the kids learn to build a fire in the fireplace during a January ice storm in sub-zero temperatures.
What do you think? Would you camp out to get your kid into a school without a building?
image: timesonline.co.uk
