The Outdoor Classroom for Children

Trails and greenspaces serve as outdoor classrooms for children and school groups. Childhood is a holistic process, different for each individual child. Many children do not learn effectively exclusively within a classroom. They need alternative, hands-on learning environments to match their varied learning styles.

Test-driven education mandates often do not emphasize children's emotional and social needs and opportunities for creativity. This limits the develop-ment of unique talents and the fulfillment of individual lives, and deprives society of practical, problem-solving intelligence.

City parks, greenways, and naturalized school grounds can be a crucial antidote to these unhealthy trends. They can motivate young people to learn through the natural environment (which includes learning about the natural environment), bringing environmental education into the mainstream of state-mandated instructional programs. The informal learning, non-formal programs, and formal instruction associated with parks can reinforce each other, enhancing academic achievement. APA, City Parks Forum (pdf)

An excellent treatise on the value of nature in education is Richard Louv’s recent book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, 2005, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Here is a list of parts in the book

I. The New Relationship Between Children and Nature
II. Why the Young (and the Rest of Us) Need Nature
III. The Best of Intentions: Why Johnnie and Jeannie Don’t Play Outside Anymore
IV. The Nature-Child Reunion
V. The Jungle Blackboard
VI. Wonder Land: Opening the For Interdisciplinary Applications for Colleges and Universities

There are many interdisciplinary applications for colleges and universities provided by trails and greenspaces. Some Texas State programs that would benefit from trails are:

1. Health, Physical Education and Recreation: Therapeutic recreation

Therapeutic Recreation contributes to the broad spectrum of health care by improving and maintaining physical, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning, preventing secondary health conditions, enhancing independent living skills, and overall quality of life. Therapeutic Recreation uses treatment (recreational therapy), education, and recreational opportunities to achieve the above goals. Recreational Therapy uses a variety of interventions to treat physical, social, cognitive, and emotional conditions associated with illness, injury, or chronic disability. Recreational therapy includes an educational component which enables individuals to become more informed and active partners in their own health care by using activities to cope with stress of illness and disability. In addition, Therapeutic Recreation services are provided in communities where preventive health services are addressed by community hospitals, schools, parks and recreation, and other human service agencies. Texas State Recreation's website

2. Geography Natural Resource Use and Planning: Problems involved in the use and conservation of natural and agricultural resources.

Land Use Planning: A study of the patterns, characteristics, and impacts of land use at the local and regional levels. Also, how effective management through the use of such planning tools as the comprehensive plan, capital improvements, programming, subdivision regulations, and zoning influences the utility of land. (www.geo.txstate.edu/programs/undergrad/descriptions/urban_info.html)

3. Biology - Texas State Department of Biology

4. Agriculture - Texas State Department of Agriculture

Community Education: Fostering Stewardship

When we are in nature we begin to know it. It may be on a technical level or it may be in an intuitive way but that knowing creates in most people the basic belief that we must be stewards of it.

Here are the basic principles of the SMGA Guidelines for Developing Community-Based,
Public Use and Stewardship Plan:

Principles:

• Stewardship plans will be developed and updated in collaboration with owners, neighbors, potential users, conservationists and all other stakeholders
• A distinct stewardship plan will be developed for each greenspace.
• Plans are meaningless unless coupled with action. Before and after a basic plan is created resources will be secured to put the plan in motion. As elements of the plan are accomplished, more detailed planning will be developed as appropriate and additional resources set in motion. This incremental, action-oriented approach will ensure effective use of volunteer time.
• Whenever possible, stewardship and limited use development activities will be designed to be fun, interesting and/or meaningful activities for the participants and designed to further ecological understanding.

Stewardship is often a balancing act between complete non-intervention and intensive management, between no access or human use and access for a wide array of user modes. Public policy and public behaviors can have significant impact on natural areas. We want to be able to enjoy natural areas but visitors bring a variety of expectations and attitudes about how such spaces should be used and their interactions can have significant impacts. All of these factors call for a complete understanding of what
we have in any given location and careful planning for its care. Education is key to stewardship.

Trail Etiquette

Visiting trails provides the opportunity to practice trail etiquette.
Check posted signs to see if camping, bicycles, horses, cars, trucks, motorcycles or dirt bikes are allowed.
Keep right and pass on the left.
Warn trail users from behind as you approach.
If applicable, observe speed limits and slow when passing.
All users exercise caution and yield to horseback riders
Cyclists yield to pedestrians. In general...wheels yield to heels!
Respect private property
Carry out garbage or use designated receptacles.
Dog owners—clean up after your pet!
Help conserve the environment by staying on the path.
Avoid use of the trail when ground is soft and wet.
Take nothing but pictures…leave nothing but footprints.

More information on Trail Etiquette


Educational Benefits of Trails

Trail users can learn about the natural, historical and cultural resources of
California, many examples of which can be found along trails or accessed by
trails. Trails are a ideal destinations for school field trips and support outdoor
classrooms for universities and colleges. Trail users can develop an appreciation
for our state’s often fragile resources through observation, photography,
interpretive signs, publications and presentations. Enjoyable and interesting trail
experiences can spur personal commitments to support parks financially,
politically, as a volunteer or as an employee. American Trails

“Our Children no longer learn how to read the great Book of Nature from their own experience or how to interact creatively with the seasonal transformations of the planet.” - Wendell Berry