“Nature opens up like a table of eternity,” says poet Sabri Altınel in one of his poems. How do I read this line? What shapes a child’s creativity, imagination, intelligence and empathy development; in other words, what builds a child’s character is the diversity of the beings they see in their habitat.
Nature, on the other hand, reveals its infinite richness and biological diversity before the eyes of the beholder. A table that nourishes the soul is set in nature. Of course, first you need to get close to the soil, touch the earth, hold on to the branches, roll in the leaves, walk with an ear to nature, explore the forests. Absorbing the richness of nature requires paying attention to every flying, leaping, hopping creature…
Just as it is ridiculous to expect children to read books when there is not a single adult in a house or in a family who reads books, it is equally absurd to expect children in a family to be good friends with nature if there is no adult in that family who has a strong connection with nature. When we talk about raising children’s awareness of nature, this is the first thing we need to keep in mind. Being “together” with children in nature… Our first consultant for understanding nature is, of course, books.
We cannot teach children to care for, love and protect nature. But the solution is very easy. It is enough for children to be in nature to embrace that they are a part of nature. Their interest and curiosity should be awakened about the beauties of the world, not about what the world has lost, not about the disasters that have befallen our planet. We should choose to draw attention to how nature can heal itself, how living things can adapt to new climatic conditions, how it is possible to reduce our carbon footprint, how fun it can be to reduce the waste in our homes, the natural richness of the forests and wetlands in the city we live in, even the meadow behind our house, the park at the end of our street, the tree facing our window, not the worrying facts.
However, the distance between the wild world and the civilized world is not as far as we think. Although existing natural areas are shrinking due to urban development, there are groves, forests, wetlands and parks in the heart of these narrow cities that beckon those who leave with their ecological richness. The only thing to do in order not to be deprived of nature in order to restore the biophilia inherent in children is to spend time in these natural areas as a family on weekends. For example, after a picnic in a wetland, reading a story about waterfowl, bringing nature home and supporting it with books about nature.
Sima Ozkan