The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Submitted by Dean Farguson My name is Dean Farguson. As a potential graduate of the Natural Resources Management Technology (NRMT) program at University College of the North in The Pas, I chose the altruistic concept of volunteering as my Wildlife Management research topic for a newspaper article. Why? Well, following my past three years attending the NRMT program, I have had the opportunity to volunteer with various resource-related organizations _ each time focusing on reconnecting provincial youth with nature. My specific interest with this conceptual mix (i.e., wildlife and education) evolved as a topic because volunteering is famous for skill development, socialization and fun _Êall aspects I have experienced while developing myself academically. Some time ago, through one of a multitude of required student assignments delivered, I became familiar with Richard Louvs' (2005) hypothesis called the 'Nature Deficit Disorder.' Researching this phenomenon, the associated contemporary trend of children spending less time outdoors, and the many 'disorders' potentially resulting in a wide range of behavioural challenges, the concept became an interest in terms of my volunteering pursuit. Louv claims that causes for the phenomenon include restricted access to natural areas, and the 'lure of the screen.' The Internet, television and gaming systems have increased their stranglehold on impressionable youth, promoting a litigious culture of fear that favours the 'plugged-in' and increased 'safe' consumption of electronic media. Similar to Louv, I too, have recognized the trend of children literally being scared straight out of the woods while being removed from the instinctive bond between us and other living systems. See 'Urge...' on pg. 18 Continued from pg. 13 Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized this hypothesis in his book, Biophilia (1984), which defines the term, biophilia as 'the urge to affiliate with other forms of life.' To add context, Shapley (2010) recently posited children today spend 22 hours per week in front of the television. When you factor in texting, Internet and video-gaming, children spend an average of seven hours and 38 minutes in front of electronic screens every single day. In contrast, and when I was young, my brother and I would run home from school only to be chased back outside by our mom! Gratefully, we both developed a solid grasp on the importance of natureÉ maybe not the eco-mechanics of wildlife conservation per se, or the taxonomic nomenclature that I am presently familiar with; but the psychological orientation of being attracted to all that is alive and vital was certainly nurtured in our rosy-faces via an unfailing abundance supplied by Mom. My conviction grows daily as I witness pupils learning lessons in conservation far too slowly in primary and secondary educational systems. Resultantly, I try to encourage young students to make connections between their own identities, their privileges as citizens, and the environmental issues they think are important. Connections I try to enlarge the circle of connections so that students are able to see how the environmental impact of one technology is connected to the entire ecosystem. The crisis is not one of technology; rather, it is one of mind and hence within the minds which develop, and use, that technology. Ultimately, the ecological crisis is a crisis of education that purports to shape and refine the capacity of minds to think clearly. As David Orr notes, 'we are still educating the young as if there were no planetary emergency.' This is clearly wrong. Through a wildlife conservation curriculum opportunity that has allowed me to voluntarily 'plug in' to this next generation of students, I have been provided a connection with more than 300 local children and the prospect of enlightening their future. It's enlightening their future not with the 'lure of the screen' but with wildlife awareness and 'the allure of the scream', particularly when I tell them that a skunk can spray its musk up to 23 feet with the help of a favourable wind; with experts reporting this 'stinker' can hit your face with accuracy at nine feet! Kids need to discover that a porcupine is covered with 30,000 three-inch quills; that horseflies have been observed circling a car going 40 miles per hour and then land on it; that beavers mate for life; that raccoons can live up to 16 years in the wild; that humming birds don't walk; that a sailfish can swim up to 68 miles per hour; and that the environment is alive. Nature deficit disorder you say? Not where I volunteer! Dean Farguson is a Wildlife Management Graduate and potential graduate with the Natural Resources Management Program at University College of the North.
