We’re not separate
This post originally appeared in Dr. Rachel A. Larimore’s weekly Samara newsletter on April 16, 2024. If you’re interested in receiving these emails, scroll to the bottom of this page to subscribe.
Earth Day is a good time to pause and reflect on why nature-based education matters for children and the Earth. It’s a time to remember we are not separate from nature, but part of it.
The core teaching of Nature-based early childhood education (NbECE) is that the learning isn’t just IN nature or ABOUT nature, but is a relationship between nature and the child. That’s why we use the phrase “learning WITH nature.”
Why do we care about supporting the relationship between nature and children?
This reciprocal, give-and-take relationship helps to disrupt the idea that we as humans are somehow separate from the natural world. It teaches children that we receive gifts from the natural world, but our actions also impact nature. In other words, learning with nature teaches children that we are part of nature, not separate from it.
Why is it important to teach that we’re part of nature and not separate from it?
It’s reality. As a collective we humans like to think we’re in charge and can “put nature in its place” whenever we want. But that is our egos talking.
The reality is we are as vulnerable to the health of the planet as any other animal. A 2021 study published in Science found that compared to today’s 60 year-olds, children born today will experience seven times the extreme heat waves, twice as many droughts and wildfires, and three times as many river floods and crop failures.
Our lives are directly impacted by the natural world–we’re part of the system. Children’s lives will be impacted even more than our lives have been.
By helping children learn with nature we are changing the way our society relates to the natural world. It’s not a shift that happens overnight. But if each of us, in the hundreds of thousands of classrooms throughout the world, are intentional about connecting young children with nature, the shift will happen–and in a deep, meaningful way rather than a superficial one.
I hope you can enjoy some time outdoors today!
Keep changing lives,
Rachel
Rachel A. Larimore, Ph.D., Chief Visionary of Samara Learning
