Life Potatoes

Dick Meyer On Overly Idle Kids & The Decline Of Common Sense

(CBS)  This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.

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Have the instincts of our species atrophied so completely that parents need to be told to have their kids play outside?

Apparently.

Apparently, it's worse than that.

Apparently, the American family of homo sapiens now needs national commissions, Congressional oversight, how-to books and even a slogan, "No Child Left Inside," to get our young out of their shelters. This used to be accomplished when primitive mothers and fathers pointed a finger and spoke two words: "Go outside." Occasionally, two other words were needed: "Or else."

I'm not sure how much weight the "or else" locution carries in the contemporary household. But "go outside" seems to have gone the way of other primitive behaviors, like not wearing hats in restaurants.

So now we have the National Forum on Children and Nation, sponsored by the Conservation Fund and aided by various businesses and politicians.

It's part of what Washington Post reporter Donna St. Clair found to be a broader bureaucratic assault on youthful sloth. "In recent months," she wrote, "it has been the focus of Capitol Hill hearings, state legislative action, grass-roots projects, a U.S. Forest Service initiative to get more children into the woods and a national effort to promote a 'green hour' in each day."

Good luck and Godspeed to all of them.

Richard Louv is helping the "go outside" alliance. He's the author of "Last Child in the Woods" and he coined the fabulous phrase "nature-deficit disorder." I have a boatload of politically incorrect and highly uninformed thoughts about this syndrome, but I'll just share two of them.

One, if kids didn't plop their soon-to-be-wide butts in front of electronic screens so much and used the imagination more in make-believe games, pretending and outdoor, free-form unstructured play – away from meddling grown-ups – there would be less attention-deficit disorder in the world.

Two (and I might lose you here), and speaking as a fisherman, I think we featherless bipeds get really corked up if we don't do something to lubricate the ancient hunter-gatherer instincts that lurk in our genes. It alienates us from what Marx called "species being," and although I don't know what that really means, it sounds exactly like what I mean. Anyway, I usually don't say this in mixed company (fishermen versus civilians), but I think kids ought to hunt and fish, not just play.

Now, I have paid close attention over several years to the research about the effects of television, video games and the Internet on children's behavior and their neurological and emotional development. And I can assure you, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the research is conclusive. Find a paper that says video games rot a kid's soul and I'll find one that says they enhance the function of the inferior cerebellar peduncle.

But I believe some day I'll be vindicated and the research will be clear: electronic fun is bad except in low doses. In the meantime, I'll have to trust what I observe: kids who spend a lot of time in front of screens are different than kids who don't. It's not brain surgery.

The "go outside" movement will be helped immensely by the good works of Conn and Hal Iggulden. These guys wrote the best-selling book, "The Dangerous Book for Boys."

It's a best-seller for a reason; it's great, fun and virtuous. The outside consultant I use in these matters, Daniel Meyer, age 12, agrees. Having prior expertise in the making of bows, arrows and tomahawks, my son thinks especially highly of the sections on "Insects and Spiders," "Tanning a Skin," and "Hunting and Cooking a Rabbit."

Cities and suburbs, of course, are anti-nature, but the suburbs weren't supposed to be. They weren't when I was a kid. But drive around suburbia and exurbia now and you just don't see kids outside. Never mind seeing kids hunting varmints or making forts; you also won't see them shooting baskets or playing hopscotch.

Kids are not just shackled to their machines, they're shackled to their schedules. Or should I say the schedules we impose on them, whether it's because two parents have to work or because we're trying to design the kind of trophy children that will get into a good college. We leave them alone too much and we don't leave them alone enough.

But surely between the sadistic amounts of homework schools now load on all kids over the age of 7, organized sports and lessons, portable electronic games and the big-screen junk, we are squeezing the imagination and the daring out of our kids.

We are not going to just have too many couch potatoes, we're going to have too many life potatoes.

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Against the Grain. We will publish some of the interesting (and civil) ones, sometimes in edited form.

[taddles-2009]

"There is nothing wrong with anabolic steroids. The drugs develop the body.
Posted by Antillo99 at 09:19 AM : Jun 29, 2007"

I assume you're joking since no one over the age of 4 actually believes something as supremely stupid as what you printed.

[heresmy2cent]

The decline of common sense...

Why don't you write an article on the effect the legal profession is having on our society? Many of our problems are caused America's overabundance of lawyers and their eagerness to sue over anything that may turn a profit.

Most schools today are fearful of having kids go to school when it snows for fear of a lawsuit, they're unable to tell parents that their child is overweight because that might infringe on someone's "rights," and on and on. The same goes for government agencies and private businesses as well. Everything need to be analyzed to see if it "lawyer proof" or at least "lawsuit resistant."

You cannot buy any product today without it having some idiotic tag or disclaimer attached to it--all out of fear of being sued for something.

Lawyers are at the root of many of modern America's ills and are ruining this country by driving up the cost of everything.

[ubrew12]

"if remaining in line means a greater chance of living and maintaining my own modest lifestyle, you bet I'll conform." Posted by hypnotoad72 at 09:41 PM : Jun 28, 2007

Death by a thousand pricks...
People like you don't deserve a weekend...

[cellac-2009]

"Totally unsafe what with drive-by shootings, abductions, child molestation by the priesthood, coverup by Mahoney and others, break-ins, muggings, rapes, murders, and worse perpetrated by the absoutely most criminal element illegally in our country. OUR kids cannot play till OUR streets are rid of illegal aliens and the criminal employers of them"

RIDICULOUS. The majority of crimes are NOT committed by illegal aliens. And most child abductions, molestations, rapes, and murders are commited by family members or other persons the child knows. Very rarely is it the stranger walking down the sidewalk.

[hypnotoad72]

I wish I could disagree with the responses here.

I can't.

Except for "It's a very child-unfriendly culture--in the US the only reason for people to exist is to make money for the owner class. Don't like it?--your job can be sent to India, ya know." -- if offshoring was about keeping people in line, NO jobs would be offshored. But if remaining in line means a greater chance of living and maintaining my own modest lifestyle, you bet I'll conform. It's as simple as that, when the time to make the choice comes.

[ubikvalis2]

"When I was growing up, you took some old boxes and made a fort with some old bed-sheets, now they sell them at Sam's club, and dad assembles them for the kids. They even sell indoor tents now for kids. We used to create these things from scratch."

No kidding! I remember when my brother used to visit me we made buildings from all the couch cushions it was so much fun! So much is pre-chewed for children these days. Give children a balloon, a few sticks, some cardboard, whatever, and let the imagination do the rest!

[tucano2]

Totally unsafe what with drive-by shootings, abductions, child molestation by the priesthood, coverup by Mahoney and others, break-ins, muggings, rapes, murders, and worse perpetrated by the absoutely most criminal element illegally in our country. OUR kids cannot play till OUR streets are rid of illegal aliens and the criminal employers of them. Do not expect much change till we American voting taxpayers fire every one of the polititions that provide excuses and/or sanctuary for these terrorists.

[kiddbilly]

it's so refreshing to read bolgs about fond memories instead of how uptight every one is. yes me ,my wife and seven children still take time to explore the outdoors. to this day the smell of fresh cut grass,just after it rains or the sound of a ball being hit by a bat sends my mind back,back,back in time. i hope when the day comes for me to leave this earth some one has just cut the grass and it begins to rain. ah !!! what a way to go !!!!!!!

[minminmin-2009]

Aah, Mr. Meyer has forced me to wax nostalgic about my childhood. He forgot to mention the part about kids getting hurt. I can't remember how my trees I fell out of or how many times I crashed and burned on my bike or skates. The ritual was always the same...go find Mom (yes, she was probably home, not at work) but if she happened to work, sometimes you could get a surrogate Mom to put that purple stuff on your knees (which were always a glorius scabby mess) and what?? Send you back outside, of course! That was life without pads, my friends. You learned to take your lumps and keep on going....a very valuable life lesson.

[sunsetmom3]

A lot of people have made valid points as to why our kids don't get out like they used to.

My family (my husband and I have three kids) just moved from a house with a practically non-existant backyard on a busy street to a subdivision in the country with an acre lot.

I was amazed how much the kids are outside now! But it is safe for them to be out now and there is tons of room to play and lots of kids in our small country subdivision to go out and play with.

We may have TVs but the kids don't watch them for long. We don't have video games and my kids are not technically savvy with a computer.

I am in a unique position - I can stay at home with the kids. It gives me more time to get things done at home and let them be outside playing. But not everyone can do that or lives where it is safe to let your kids out.