Environmental awareness has been on the rise for decades and now parents can count green exercise as a measure of their child's well-being.
A report card on childhood activity now grades "nature and the outdoors" alongside analysis of playground and sports equipment, sport opportunities at school, community programming, government health policies and other topics in an effort to improve the health of young Canadians.
Active Healthy Kids Canada, a physical education think tank based in Toronto, partnered with Participaction and the Heart and Stroke Foundation for the annual Healthy Kids Canada report card.
Nonetheless, the grade for this latest subject can't be determined. "The grade for Nature and the Outdoors is incomplete this year due to a lack of data on the quality of physical activity that children and youth are getting in nature and the outdoors," states the report, which was released earlier this month.
One key finding indicates kids spend significantly less time playing outdoors as they move from elementary to high school. Exercising outside in a park, near trees, by a lake or running water and other natural elements, may alleviate children, youth and adults alike from anxiety, depression and volatile mood swings while improving attention span, concentration and contentedness.
"A phrase that I use more and more these days is 'nearby nature,'" said Richard Louv, the American researcher who introduced the notion of "nature deficit disorder," a concept that warns of the perils of becoming alienated from nature.
"Wilderness is very important but nearby nature can be the clump of trees at the end of the cul-de-sac or it can be the ravine behind your house, it can be the neighbourhood park."
Leanne Clare with the David Suzuki Foundation works on connecting youth with the great wide and natural world around them. "One of the first ways to get [kids] healthy is to get them outside," she said from Ottawa.
Clare could not specifically comment on the health benefits of exercising outside, but echoed Louv's conviction that connecting with nature can be as simple as sitting near a grove of trees.
"Being outside does not necessarily mean you're connecting with nature but it's an important first step in a society that's become more and more urban. Overall, the perspective we have is that if you don't have some kind of connection with nature, that you're never going to want to try to protect it," she said. "You're not going to value it and you're not going to understand why it's important and that you're a part of it."
The Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»School Board runs several outdoor education programs, including Take A Hike for at-risk youth.
Colin Cheng is one of four teachers at Prince of Wales secondary responsible for Trek, a specialized program for Grade 10 students that teaches essential outdoor skills, including low-impact camping, first aid, nutrition and navigational abilities.
Cheng cautioned against leading a class of students into the bush without proper training and experienced guides, but said many typically classroom-based lessons can be moved outside. "You can apply any subject to the outdoors," he said. Measuring the age of a tree requires a mathematical formula, for example. A person's position on Earth can be determined using a sextant, an astronomical device that measures angles and requires its user observe the surrounding environment.
Similar to the David Suzuki Foundation, Cheng said Trek values sustainability and imparts the concept that nature is precious, beautiful and worth preserving.
Despite learning essential skills, building self-esteem and developing a sense of environmental stewardship, there is a growing albeit limited body of research that points to additional health benefits from exercising outside. As the inconclusive grade from Active Healthy Kids Canada indicates, there's not enough information to determine what Canadian schools are doing effectively or how they can improve.
"It's a difficult thing to measure," said Louv. "For instance, in the child obesity literature, you will very seldom if ever see the word nature. Even if, obviously, getting out in nature means moving and does have an effect on childhood obesity, it's not something that is focused on as much as it should be. The fact that that question was added is really important." [email protected]
Twitter: @MHStewart
