Taking Steps Towards Eliminating the Nature‐ Deficit Disorder in our Community

There is a disorder targeting today’s youth with no vaccination or technological advancement to provide a cure. Instead, treatment is freely lying outside the confines of buildings and in the prairies, forests, and mountains of the Earth. The nature‐deficit disorder is a national trend showing up in children, demonstrating a decreasing exposure to nature. With the creation of the No Child Left Inside Act of 2007, a fuse of organizations, institutions, and agencies are demanding attention and action from the government in order to bridge the environmental education gap prevalent in today’s public schools. With the knowledge, power and background of students engaged in higher education, the movement to reduce the disorder in younger generations can be carried out in local communities, especially college towns. My project attempts to address this issue in Northampton by strengthening the partnership between Smith students and the young students at the Campus School through the planning of a couple of outdoor events. Though the actual events were unable to take place, I was able acquire recommendations for the existence of similar events for the future