"Can we have class outside?"

Once again, thanks to my online child development class for giving me the inspiration for this blog.

My instructor posted this video on a discussion forum and asked us to watch it and then discuss how it relates to child development. Please watch it before reading any further.


First, how does relate to child development? Well, to be brief, many child development theorists (Rousseau, Montessori, Schachtel, etc.) felt that children need to learn from their own experiences. In other words, they aren't going to understand something as well when they read about it out of a science book as when they actually experience it. Also, these theorists believed that children need to be allowed to explore and run around. Sitting at a desk is not natural for a child. Running around outside is. Therefore, teaching kids outdoors is more developmentally appropriate than forcing them to sit and learn something out of a text book.

This leads me to my next point. As someone who spent many summers at Girl Scout camp, both as a camper and as staff, I immediately thought of my camp experiences when watching the video. Then I started thinking of behavior of children at camp versus behavior of children at school, and I felt like we had fewer behavior issues to deal with at camp then we ever have at school. While many factors affect this (adult/child ratio, demographics of the children, etc.) I think a major contributor is the environment. When kids are at camp, they are allowed to run around, talk loudly, explore a little bit, and enjoy themselves. At school, children are inside and have less space to move around, have to keep their voices quiet, and some teachers don't let them move around at all! The same kid that acts up at school (you know, the class clown) would probably be a favorite of the camp staff just because a camp environment is more developmentally appropriate for that child. Even in classes like mine where I try to keep my kids as active as possible and do as many hands-on activities as I can, there are still kids who would just benefit from being in a space where it is ok to move around more and just be a kid! I do think it is important for schools to get kids outside more, instead of confining their classes to the tiny space inside four walls. I just wish there was more support from administrators and "the powers that be" on this.

Hey, even graduate students sometimes benefit from having class outside!