King Arthur Movie Tristan

It's not a new theory to readers of this blog, but a big "yea!" to Lucia Corbella for discussing it:

For most school-aged children in Canada, today is that most marvellous of days -- the last day of school.

And for those of us older than, say, 35, the last day of school represented much more than just no homework. It also meant little supervision and not many plans. It meant freedom to just kick around unsupervised.

Not any more. Now our kids' summers aren't so much about freedom and finding their own fun. Instead they are structured and almost always supervised.

Apparently a new British study, "Natural thinking: Investigating the links Between the Natural Environment and Mental Health" by Dr. William Bird, says not giving children freedom to explore the natural world leads to higher incidence of stress, ADHD, rage, impulsiveness and criminality in children.

Wat's really shocking is that this news to anyone. Kids need freedom, they need responsibility and they need time to ponder the world, and their world. Constant stimulus is the worst thing for children, and the thing that more and more children are getting.

I have reviewed Silken Lauman's Child's Play and talked about Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods before, and won't rehash. But they both make the clear point that we do a disservice to our kids when we over protect them, and this study is one more argument in for that point.