How can our kids really understand the moral complexities of being alive if they are not allowed to engage in those complexities outdoors?

Progress does not have to be patented to be worthwhile. Progress can also be measured by our interactions with nature and its preservation. Can we teach children to look at a flower and see all the things it represents: beauty, the health of an ecosystem, and the potential for healing?

We tend to block off many of our senses when we're staring at a screen. Nature time can literally bring us to our senses.

This seems clear enough: When truly present in nature, we do use all our senses at the same time, which is the optimum state of learning.

Reconnection to the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival.

Kids are absolutely starved for positive adult contact.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that the number of overweight adult Americans increased over 60 percent between 1991 and 2000. According to CDC data, the U.S. population of overweight children between ages two and five increased by almost 36 percent from 1989 to 1999.