Essay (45)
The twenty first century is known as a techology
filled, fast paced envronment. The ways we as a world
now view our environment is astonishingly different now compared to 100 years
ago. Technology is seen as a major contributor to why children don’t
participate more in outdoor activities. Although, according to Peter Fimrite’s article, “Children Detach from the Natural World
as They Explore the Virtual One” there are many different outlets of U.S.
society that could be placed at fault concerning why children don’t spend time
outdoors. In looking at this problem, we as a U.S. society can notice that
we live in a different world that was 100 yers ago
and the priorities of both adults and children alike are different, but if we
continue to cut out outdoor activities from our children’s lives, it is going
to have a permanent effect on them.
There are now at last count over six billion people living
on planet earth, which would make living next to a forrest or a park not easy for every child. With
more people living in rural areas nowadays, it limits what children think or
like about the natural world. When living in a place like McKinleyville, Califronia like I
did, there is a very slim chance of children not exploring the outdoors.
Although, I still remember in my middle school days kids sayning
they had never been to the mountains or seen snow; with the mountains only a
short drove away, that notion still seems unreal. Although Tommy Nguyen lives
in a big city, his lack of intest reflects the
opinion of a majority of today’s kids. Nguyen exclaims, “I would rather be at
the mall because you can enjoy yourself walking around looking at stuff as
opposed to the woods.” Sadly a lot of teenagers and children woiuld probably agree with that statement. The contributing
factor of 89 percent of the
There is a lot of pressure put on children to succeed in
school more now than ever before with the growing need of an education in order
to get a better job which takes away children’s ability or desire to explore
the outdoors. Having just graduated from high school only two years ago
myself, the pressure to make good grades and graduate is still fresh in my
mind. I remember not even wanting to do or enjoying simple outdoor things such
as walking my dog because of the large amount of homework that I would be
thinking about that was due the next day. In the article, Kim Sturb, a mother of two states, “There is probably five times
as much homework then there used to be when I was a kid.” This proves that
rising amounds of scholastic responsibility, and
therefore the lack of outdoor activity, isn’t all just in kids’ imaginations.
Although there might be good excuses as to why children
or teens don’t enjoy the outside world more often, the fact can’t be denied
that if children continue to cut out outside activities, negative results will
stem from it. A more obvious result of lack of outdoor activity is obesity.
This according to Fimrite’s article,
has “caused great concerns among parents, educator, and physicians.” It is
common knowledge that obesity itself is life thereatening,
but also that it can cause life threatening illnesses such as diabetes. From
another spectrum, according the Fimritie’s article,
environmentalists don’t think that children will care about endagered
animals if they don’t care about the outdoors. This means that such species as
the article’s aforementioned spotted owl will be completely wiped off of the
earth, which isn’t a very positive outlook.
Nature isn’t just a place with trees and birds; a lot of
different products that help our world come from nature. Where would we be
without nature-stemmed ideas such as the windmill? It would also be a sad day
when no child wants to go out and build a snowman, or go swimming. Rural areas and technology arent the only
aspects responsible for children’s lack of interest. Hopefully, though
in the future, there can be more of a balancing act between text messaging and
building a tree fort.
Essay 45: 3
The key words here are
“adequately addresses the topic.”
Although the cross outs and handwriting (along with some clunky word
choice) make this a less than elegant presentation, the thesis and topic
sentences offer clear and acceptable judgments, and the support is actually
fairly strong, as was the fact that it had 3 body paragraphs.