Principal Message
Be Kind, Be safe, Be respectful, Be responsible, Be resilient, Be ready
Dear Parents and Carers,
As you all know now, Mrs Pamela McKillop will be the Principal of Our Lady Star of the Sea from January 2026. Pam will be visiting us when she can to get to know our community, and so you can get to know her.
As the weather is finally warming up, I thought this article was a good reminder of the importance of enjoying nature.
Over the past few years, we have had a number of creative labels such as “Affluenza”, “Activity Overload”, and “Downsizing”, which were meant to bait our curiosity and have us investigate what was behind the label. Amongst last year’s “creative labels” was “Nature Deficit Disorder”, which sounds as if it is describing a medical condition, but is really a description of the human cost of separation from nature.
Richard Louv, in his book, “Last Child in the Woods”, coined the phrase to draw our attention to how our “disconnect” with nature is affecting today’s children. Another phrase coined by the author is “Protected House Arrest,” and this was to point out how parents’ fear for the safety of their children does not allow their children to play outdoors as they once did. Many children today are hooked into the electronic umbilical cord of the “Modern Lifestyle” and have little unstructured time for natural play, when they are in real contact with nature and not simply bouncing or hitting a ball on concrete or asphalt.
Research tells us that today’s children, glued to screens and other electronic outlets, are losing touch with nature. Paediatricians warn that this generation of children could be the first to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Obesity, stress, and depression are on the increase in our young people, while research has shown that getting outdoors and into real contact with nature, will reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.
“Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it.” Richard Louv. Today’s children can talk about rainforests and wetlands and their importance as habitats to some of the rarest animals on earth; young children can even explain the difference between endangered and extinct.
Children today have more information about nature and the environment than we had at their age, but, sadly, they have little or no relationship with nature. If they are deprived of time outdoors, they are deprived of nature.
Another coined term is “Controlled Risk”, whereby parents go outdoors with their children but allow their children unencumbered time to roam around, explore, and make contact with nature. We can’t keep our children so “safe” and controlled that they can’t experience with all their senses the beauty and wonder of the natural world. Nature has restorative qualities and can give busy families a sense of rebalance and connection. Much does not happen to our children’s imagination and inner life, if we always keep them indoors.
There is something in encounters with nature that nourishes us from the inside out, that builds reverence for life and allows us to rejoice in our own aliveness. Time outside allows us to see that we are part of the unfolding of something beyond ourselves; we are part of the great story of creation, and savouring the natural world can be a healing prayer of gratitude.
Keep smiling
Cathy
