The Child and Nature: dogs, bogs and honeysuckle

Abstract: In what ways does nature serve children as a matrix of becoming human? Are children impoverished who lack this mode of experience with and within nature? Are children’s imaginations hobbled in some foundational way by the eruption of technology into the lived matrix of nature and human interaction? This paper will explore how children’s experiences of the natural world (shape their view of what is real, assist them in meaning-making and offer them models of valuing. We will suggest educational strategies to reconnect children to their birthright as beings, sentient and reflective in the world, and how that natural environment, serves to promote their humanity. Through their authentic engagement with nature children construct and interpret the great binary concepts of good/evil, alive/inert, human/nature. Key Words: children, nature, imagination, philosoph