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

The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my 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.

In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace.

Nature has been taken over by thugs who care absolutely nothing about it. We need to take nature back.

This tree house became our galleon, our spaceship, our Fort Apache...Ours was a learning tree. Through it we learned to trust ourselves and our abilities.

One of my students told me that every time she learns the name of a plant, she feels as if she is meeting someone new. Giving a name to something is a way of knowing it.