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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

Growing Up Denatured

Illustration by Stephen Webster

By BRADFORD McKEE

Published: April 28, 2005
Sandy Huffaker for The New York Times
Richard Louv's new book has a message for parents: don't be afraid to let 
children roam in the woods.

WERE it not for the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, Neil Figler said, his sons, 
7 and 11, might never peel themselves away from the Xbox to go outside and 
play.

"My kids want to finish their homework so they can play video games," said 
Mr. Figler, 47, a salesman and Cubmaster in Goldens Bridge, N.Y. In 
Scouting his sons have learned to light fires, handle knives and build 
sleds for trekking through the woods. But even those occasional encounters 
with nature are planned and supervised by adults.

Nonetheless, the outings seem wilder than most anything else going on in 
kidland these days. Mr. Figler said his sons find life easier and more 
familiar in front of a computer screen. Among the Scouts, he said, "that's 
more the norm than the exception."

The days of free-range childhood seem to be over. And parents can now add a 
new worry to the list of things that make them feel inept: increasingly 
their children, as Woody Allen might say, are at two with nature.

Full article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/garden/28kids.html