Most of us spend our lives seeking the natural world. To this
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, we go fishing, sit in the garden, drink outside rather than inside the pub, live in the
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or go to the seaside. It is my profound belief that not only
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we all need nature, but we all seek nature,
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we know we are doing so or not.
But despite this, our children are growing up
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. I spent my boyhood
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trees on Streatham Common, South London. These days, children are robbed
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these ancient freedoms, due to problems like crime, traffic and the loss of the open
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.
A study in Sweden indicated that kindergarten children who could play in a natural environment had less
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and greater physical ability than children used only
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a normal playground. A U.S. study suggested that when a school gave children
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to a natural environment, academic levels were raised across the entire school.
Another study found that children play
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in a natural environment. In playgrounds, children create a hierarchy (等级)
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on physical abilities, with the tough ones taking the
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. But when a grassy area was planted with bushes, the children got much
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into fantasy play, and the social hierarchy was now on
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and creativity.
But children are frequently discouraged
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involvement with natural spaces, for health and safety reasons, for
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that they might get dirty or that they might cause damage. So, instead, the damage is
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to the children themselves: not to their bodies but to their
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.