Children in urban areas need to be reintroduced to nature

Paramita Atmodiwirjo and Yandi Andri Yatmo, Jakarta

If you ask an elementary school pupil in Jakarta where tomatoes come from, do not be surprised if he replies "From the supermarket". Not many of our children really know that tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables, are the results of the hard work of farmers. Not many of them are aware that the tomatoes they have on their dining tables have gone through a long process starting with the seeds, before being ready to eat.

It is inevitable that children in big cities nowadays have few opportunities for getting in touch with nature. In Jakarta, the total area of green spaces has been dramatically reduced to only nine percent of the city's area. On the other hand, a countless number of shopping malls have been built all over the city.

Children's life space is now confined to the shrinking realms of home, school and malls. Their day begins with an early morning journey to school, riding in a car through city streets congested with vehicles and people. After-school hours are spent on English courses, music lessons, watching television or sitting in front of the computer. Outdoor activities, if any at all, are limited to playing on the streets or in the playground, the number of which is gradually diminishing in our cities. Shopping malls with eating and play facilities have become the main destinations for weekend family leisure.

The lives of city children are being stuffed full of man-made objects and materials that result from advances in technology. For these children, the natural world that they are familiar with consists only of the city parks with trees that they see through car windows, the stories about farmers that they read in school textbooks, and the playground, with its swings and slides, in their housing complex.

The children who live in our cities are fortunate enough to enjoy modern facilities. They are familiar with the latest fads in clothing, food and toys. Their knowledge of technology is comparable to their peers in the developed countries. Internet surfing has become a part of their daily lives, and often they are even more computer savvy than their parents.

However, there is one thing that city children miss. These children no longer have first-hand experiences with the richness of nature. They do not enjoy the experiences in this regard of their peers in rural areas, far from urban modernity and technology. Rural children walk to school every morning through rice fields, plantations and forests. They play freely in open natural spaces, without any fear of vehicles. They climb tall trees, pick fruit directly, and slice sugarcane to suck out its sweet sap.

These children create their own toys from nature. They build houses in the tops of trees, or in the middle of plantations, with cassava stalks as the columns and leaves as the roof. They make toy horses, toy guns and boats from banana stems, cars from grapefruit skins, and spinning tops from rubber kernels and bamboo chips. They play with soil, sand and mud, digging tunnels and making hills. They draw on the sand in front of their homes. And, of course, they do know where tomatoes come from, and they know precisely how to plant and take care of these plants.

These children do not need to be taught the meaning of nature for human life. They live with nature; they enjoy, utilize and care for nature. These children really understand the meaning of sustainability.

For children in the cities who do not possess such opportunities, it has become necessary to bring nature back into their daily lives. Otherwise, they will grow up as a generation that treats nature as alien. Everything will become artificial and their lives will become orientated to man-made objects alone.

Children need to be brought back to nature from an their early age. An initiative by the local government in Sheffield, United Kingdom provides a good example of how nature can be introduced to young children. The children participate in a series of activities called Ranger Events, which include weekend walks through woodlands and parks, watching and feeding birds, learning about flowers, fruits and fungus, and making handicraft objects from natural materials. Sometimes they just clean parks together. These events take part in various green spaces around the city, and are designed in such a way that the whole family can participate.

Of course, when there are no such organized activities available, we can also start the effort in our own homes. A piece of green space in the backyard, no matter how small, can become a resource for children to learn about nature. The backyard should not only be a place to plant beautiful flowers for visual enjoyment, but should also be a place where children can touch and feel nature.

Children need to be introduced to the richness of the natural world as part of their development. Playing in the garden with the soil, water and sand is no less fun than playing computer games. These natural objects offer stimuli that are important for sensory development and creativity. The children can create their own toys with the materials that are available in their surrounding. They need to understand that there are always alternatives for toys; toys do not always have to be new, bought in the shop, sophisticated, modern and made of plastic.

The role of parents is also very important. Bringing our children back to nature means allowing them to get their hands dirty. Parents could organize family activities such as planting spring onions and spinach, and watering and taking care of them, until they are ready to be picked and put in the cooking pot. When this happens, we can be sure that our children will know where tomatoes come from.

The writers are lecturers in architecture of the University of Indonesia, and have a particular interest in children's environments.