Summer is drawing to a close, big yellow school buses are filling the streets, and children everywhere are beginning to get back to reading, writing, and arithmetic. While most every nation rings the school bell in one way or another, not everyone approaches education in the same way. A new documentary is revealing how Scandinavia infuses education with nature.
The film, Nature Play: Take Childhood Back, explores the American method of the pressure cooker of standardized testing and compares it to the more serene approach taken by Scandinavia. While American parents shuttle their children from one pre-planned activity to another, then settle down to hours of homework each night, Nordic children spend their days outside, exploring forests and hiking fjords.
The film is a collaboration between Danish filmmaker Dan Stilling and American producer/writer Aimie Stilling, and the result is a stark and sometimes harsh contrast. The philosophy of the Scandinavian system is that “children belong in nature, and nature belongs in education.” Students, even those who live in urban environments, attend “forest kindergartens” and take trips to national parks and woodland areas. Classes are held rain or shine and the children spend hours outside each day, learning about, and interacting with, the natural world. Even those as young as three years old are taught to fish, tie knots, carve and cut wood, and to prepare meals. If a child gets a cut or scrape, that is all part of the lesson. Students are encouraged to play and explore.
One of the negative aspects of the American obsession with standardized testing is that many school districts have reduced or even abolished recess to make more time for studying. Research has shown that free play time is just as important to good brain development as academics. Removing recess not only denies students this opportunity but limits physical activity and time spent in fresh air and sunshine, all things that can have numerous health benefits.
Nature Play has won five international awards. Watch the trailer for this provocative film here.
Featured Image from Hans M/Unsplash
