Today’s children will have no such recollection, as childhood has transitioned from outdoors to indoors, and virtual reality has replaced the real world. Whereas I spent hours each day playing outdoors, a recent study revealed that the typical American child spends only four to seven minutes per day playing outside. By contrast, digital screens hypnotize our children for more than seven hours each day.
With this digital assault on their education, it’s hardly a surprise to learn that children can recognize over 1,000 corporate logos, but fewer than 10 native plants.
Today’s children can navigate with technology, but not with a paper road map. They can find Wi-Fi in any city, but ask them to purify water from any source and they can’t. They can use a microwave, but they can’t build a fire.
Beyond the basic survival skills that we are failing to pass on to our children, our world has many more violent threats than just a generation ago. In addition to common natural disasters, our society has become increasingly and indiscriminately violent. Unspeakable tragedies happen regularly, and include abductions, sexual assaults, and deadly shootings at schools, from kindergartens to universities.
We keep glued to the news reports and cringe when we contemplate the truly horrific nature of the tragedy. But do we change our behavior or do anything to prepare ourselves for such an event? Do we take our children aside and teach them skills that could save their lives?
For most people, the answer is no. We turn our heads and remain inactive. The unfortunate truth is that so many deadly life-altering tragedies surround us that we are, ironically, unaware of them.
Although I thought of playing outside as—well—playful, in truth my childhood play was the original prep school that prepared me to survive in the world.
