Call of the wild

Awoooooh! Howling and barking late into the night, an unknown canine roamed the surrounding hills near our house. I peered into the darkness but could not see anything. For a brief instant, the thought of a ruthless Lycan in the midst of its savage transformation sent shivers up my spine. I quickly dismissed the thought but went out like a werewolf hunter anyway to try to locate the animal that had been causing me so many sleepless nights. Alas, it became mysteriously silent as soon as I reached the general vicinity of where I thought the hound was hiding. The following morning, I was intrigued to find a book that my children have been reading on top of the living room table entitled The Call of the Wild by American author Jack London. As I started leafing through its pages, I found myself enthralled by the story of a domesticated dog named Buck who is snatched and sold into the brutal life of a sled dog in Alaska. The book chronicles Buck’s transformation from that of a tame and pampered household pet into a feared wolf-like (though ultimately noble) savage in order to survive. Written in 1903, the novella is considered a literary classic. And although some consider it more of a children’s book because of its animal characters, it deals with a lot of mature themes such as “survival of the fittest, civilization versus nature, and fate versus free will.” What particularly piqued my interest, however, was how Buck’s long slumbering primordial instincts were slowly awakened as a result of the harsh environment that he was thrown into. And as the “ancient creature” within him grew stronger each day, he felt a distant call from the deep forest that aroused “intense curiosity and strange desires.” He couldn’t really figure it out though until one night when he experienced a sudden urge. This time, the call was no longer something that he heard from deep inside him. It was a real cry. The cry of a long, lean wolf, “with nose pointed skyward,” howling at the heavens.

As I reflected on Buck and my unidentified nocturnal four-legged pest, they reminded me once more of the importance of nature and the environment in the growth and education of my children. We live today in an artificial world where our children have grown, as one expert coined it, “nature-deficient.” And while I certainly don’t think any of us want our kids to revert back to club-wielding and cave-dwelling little Neanderthals, I do believe that we should do more to expose them to nature and awaken perhaps some of those innate dormant traits that lie deep within their being. Actually, there are scientific studies that have been conducted by neuroscientists and psychologists that suggest that exposing kids to nature can help children learn better, lead to improved classroom behavior, and even to higher scores on standardized tests! One very interesting hypothesis that I recently came across with is called the “attention restoration theory.” According to this concept, we humans have two different types of attention: directed attention and involuntary attention. Directed attention, like the effort we exert when taking an exam, takes a lot of focus and concentration. According to brain scientists, we only have a finite amount of directed attention at any given time. After some period, we become “fatigued, distracted, irritable, impatient and less effective.” On the other hand, involuntary attention is “effortless, natural, and more relaxed.” Examples of involuntary attention are when our awareness is spontaneously captured by something naturally occurring in the environment such as clouds floating across the blue sky, a gentle breeze, lush greenery, or a running brook. These kinds of “soft fascinations” naturally grab our attention without our really noticing it.   Experts say that involuntary attention is particularly good for the young brain because it rests the mind and restores its capacity for further directed, focused attention. The concrete urban jungle that we live in does not provide similarly restful settings because they are too fast-paced. TV and other electronic media also overload our children’s brains so that they do not allow “the circuitry involved in paying attention to recharge.”

Among the off-shoots of these findings is that more and more schools are re-examining the way their facilities are designed. Too often, the emphasis is solely on infrastructure, on things like air-conditioning and on so-called “modern” classrooms and not enough on open spaces and greenery. In fact, there is now a growing movement in other countries that advocates “outdoor classrooms.” One very interesting example is the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs’ “Forest Kindergarten.” It has many of the features of a typical Waldorf kindergarten except for one thing — there are practically no classrooms! Barring really bad weather, the children spend their entire school day outdoors. According to its teachers, it’s a very “organic” kind of education that nurtures the children’s imagination. Of course, going to such an extreme may not be possible (nor totally desirable) for everyone. Nevertheless, there are so many things that we can easily do “in-between.” Regardless of what we do, however, we should never fail to recognize the fact that nature has been, and shall always be, our best teacher. Awoooooh!

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If you are interested in letting your kids try out Waldorf education, you may contact the Manila Waldorf School at 570-7038 or 570-8138. You may also want to check out the school’s website at www.manilawaldorschool.edu.ph.

Please e-mail your reactions to kindergartendad@yahoo.com.