The forest kindergarten for big kids

Go out and play. (Image by andreas N)

For months, the lives of many otherwise privileged kids have been dominated by screens.

Without anything else to do or anywhere else to go, they’ve been relying on digital devices for entertainment, human connection, education, and enrichment.

It’s great that they have this option, but it’s not enough, and it can’t go on forever. Coronavirus or no, we need to make sure children get ample time to interact with the natural world.

As a matter of fact, we have a unique opportunity right now to do just that. Instead of forcing students to spend seven or eight hours a day this fall in a school building full of plexiglass dividers and somber one-way hallways, we could send them outside. Day by day, by playing and learning outdoors, we can make up for the months of reduced activity, poor socialization, and being cooped up — all while lowering our risk of COVID-19 infection relative to being inside the classroom.

Many schools and districts are intending to move to hybrid instructional models — for instance, two days in school and three days online each week. What if we were to build our in-person programming around outdoor experiences?

The European forest kindergarten has a long history. So do outdoor education programs for older students and adults. How might these types of learning experiences be adapted to the current circumstances?

Education doesn’t have to take place in the classroom. In fact, the happiest students know that the best learning usually doesn’t. We learn through solving problems, driven by a goal; by way of experimentation and discovery; and as a result of watching and imitating others. We learn through touching, exploring, experiencing, listening. Trying and failing, and trying again. There’s not always room for these things when you’re sitting at a desk. The forest, a public park, or even a sidewalk can broaden the possibilities.

Sure, students need to sit and read. But consuming information is only part of the process — the rest is putting to use what you’ve learned, whether that’s discussing ideas with others or actively pursuing a skill. The ideal situation would be an intense online learning experience full of interaction and feedback, balanced by intense physical and sensory experiences in the real world.

We’re asking a lot of teachers if we expect them to come up with incredible games and activities from scratch, adapting their entire curriculum for outdoor learning. The good news is that they don’t necessarily have to. Online learning can be remarkably efficient, targeting exactly what students need without the hours of sitting in class. That frees up time for students to just play with each other, an extraordinarily beneficial pursuit in general but particularly so right now, after they’ve spent months being unable to do so. Kids, even big ones, can invent their own games and activities — it’s very good for them. The teachers can take a breather.

Just as with the forest kindergarten, we would need to learn to adapt to less-than-ideal conditions. We would need to dress for the weather, which is a privilege not all students have and an area that might need support. However, the potential discomforts of the natural world present more fodder for learning. At the very least, they create memorable experiences, which have been in short supply for many of us over the past few months. And as John Lennon sang, we can recognize that weather isn’t good or bad — it’s all in how we choose to view it. This presents a useful lesson for adapting to life’s challenges in general, which is highly relevant to the times.

Maybe kids won’t be able to build fires, swim in streams, or climb trees during school time; the true forest kindergarten experience requires a forest. However, they don’t need a playground in order to play, and they don’t need special equipment in order to learn. We can make use of whatever we have and build lessons and projects around that. This echoes the larger endeavor that we’re engaged in as we deal with the effect of the pandemic on our schools. We’re in the midst of a giant exercise in problem-solving and making the best of what we have. Taking the students outside is a powerful way to make the most of the time that we have with them — and the time that they have with each other.