Scotland Commits to Making Outdoor Play Officially ‘Fundamental’ to Learning. Also, Norway known as the country where one of the best educational systems in the world is already applying this into their schools. What are we waiting for?
This Tedx talk about why kids really fidget – with a recommendation for children to be outside 3 hours(!) a day.
Playing and learning outdoors is to become “a fundamental part of growing up in Scotland”, after 50 influential organizations and people signed up to that commitment in Scotland last month.
A national “position statement” states that they will combine their efforts “to make playing and learning outdoors an everyday activity for Scotland’s children and young people”.
By taking children into the outdoors we’re exposing them things they’ve never seen before. They get to build initiative and teamwork skills alongside seeing black slugs and hilltops for the first time. We’re giving them the tools and confidence to explore on their own, have adventures and test their limits. It also gets their parents involved and helps them to lead healthy, active lives.
Outdoor play “encourages taking risks”!
The purpose of education should be rooted in the notion that it enables people to grow. The primary years at school lay the foundations not only in terms of knowledge base and skill set, but perhaps even more importantly in sowing the seeds of positive attitudes both academically and socially. Children need to be curious about the world and believe that they have the agency to change it for the better. But how to afford it? By taking children outdoors!
That outdoor play helps children “take risks, test boundaries, think creatively and solve problems.” It also has a social dimension – “it is an investment in a generation of children who, growing up in contact with nature, will be a generation of adults who respect and understand the world around them, will protect it and take care of it“, says Dr. Calderwood.
these pictures have been taken at the Dajti Mountains last September
Dr. Catherine Calderwood, director of NHS medical services in Scotland, pointed out the benefits that include using the natural world to “develop curiosity and science-related skills.” On the other hand, Peter Higgins, professor of environmental education at the University of Edinburgh, emphasized that there is an important reason why children and adults of all ages are looking for urban green spaces, rural areas, coastlines and wilderness: “they satisfy a deep inner need for contact with nature and are fundamental for our well-being “- he said.
The above actions are a reaction to an annual health survey published in September this year, the results of which strongly affected the Scots. It shows that in 2017 only 32% of children between the ages of 5 and 12 spent recommended 60 minutes of outdoor activity per day, and among those aged 13 to 15, the percentage was only 18%.
I wonder how these statistics look like in Albania?
