THE HYBRID MIND: The More High-Tech Education Becomes, The More Nature Our Children Need

I once met an instructor who trained young people to become the pilots of cruise ships. He described the two kinds of students he encounters. One kind grew up mainly indoors, spending hours playing video games and working on computers. These students are quick to learn the ship’s electronics, a useful talent, the instructor explained. The other kind of student grew up spending a lot of time outdoors, often in nature. They, too, have a talent. “They actually know where the ship is.”

He wasn’t being cute. Recent studies of the human senses back that statement up. “We need people who have both ways of knowing the world,” he added.

Currently, the force of economics is on the side of technology and standardized efficiency.

Optimistic researchers suggest that multitasking is creating the smartest generation yet, freed from limitations of geography, weather, and distance—pesky inconveniences of the physical world.

Others are skeptical, if not hostile to technology. In his book The Dumbest Generation, Mark Bauerlein, a professor at Emory University, reels out studies comparing this generation of students with prior generations, reporting “they don’t know any more history or civics, economics or science, literature or current events”— despite all that available information. Other researchers believe that people who experience too much technology in their formative years experience stunted development of the frontal lobe, “ultimately freezing them in teen brain mode,” as Maclean’s magazine put it.

Here’s a third possibility, what I call the hybrid mind. The ultimate multitasking is to live simultaneously in both the digital and physical worlds, using computers to maximize our powers to process intellectual data and natural environments to ignite our senses and accelerate our ability to learn and feel—combining the resurfaced “primitive” powers of our ancestors with the digital speed of our teenagers.

Want Students to Learn? Ignite the senses now

Scientists who study human perception no longer assume we have only five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing. The number now ranges from a conservative 10 to as many as 30, including blood-sugar levels, empty stomach, thirst, and proprio­ception (awareness of our body’s position in space).

Ever wonder why you have two nostrils? Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley did. They fitted undergraduates with taped-over goggles, earmuffs, and work gloves to block other senses, then set them loose in a field. Most of the students could follow a 30-foot-long trail of chocolate perfume and even changed direction precisely where the invisible path took a turn.

The subjects were able to smell better with two functioning nostrils, which researchers likened to hearing in stereo. And they found themselves zigzagging, a technique employed by dogs as they track. “We found that not only are humans capable of scent tracking,” said study researcher Noam Sobel, “but they spontaneously mimic the tracking pattern of [other] mammals.”

In 2009, researchers at Madrid’s University of Alcalá de Henares showed how people, like bats, could identify objects without needing to see them, through the echoes of human tongue clicks. According to the lead researcher, echoes are also perceived through vibrations in ears, tongue, and bones—a refined sense learned through trial and error by some blind people and even sighted individuals. It’s all about hearing a world that exists beyond what we normally mistake for silence.

What else can we do that we’ve forgotten?

The U.S. military has studied how some soldiers seem to be able to use their latent senses to detect roadside bombs and other hazards. The 18-month study of 800 military personnel found that the best bomb spotters were rural people—those who’d grown up in the woods hunting turkey or deer—as well as those from tough urban neighborhoods, where it’s equally important to be alert.

“They just seemed to pick up things much better,” reported Army Sergeant Major Todd Burnett, who worked on the study for the Pentagon’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization. “They know how to look at the entire environment.” And the other enlistees, the ones who’d spent more time with Game Boys or at the mall? They didn’t do so well. As Burnett put it, they were focused on the proverbial “screen rather than the whole surrounding.”

The explanation may be partly physiological. Australian researchers suggest that the troubling increase in nearsightedness is linked to young people spending less time outdoors, where eyes must focus at longer distances. But more is probably going on here. Good vision, acute hearing, an attuned sense of smell, spatial awareness—all of these abilities could be operating simultaneously. This natural advantage offers practical applications. One is an increased ability to learn; another is an enhanced capability to avoid danger. Still another, perhaps the most important, is the measurement-defying ability to more fully engage in life.

Today, students (and the rest of us) who work and learn in a dominating digital environment expend enormous energy to block out many of these senses, in order to focus narrowly on the screen in front of the eyes. That’s the very definition of being less alive.

Who among us wants to be less alive? What parent wants their child to be less alive?

I believe that a central goal of modern education should be to encourage such flexible thinking, to nurture the hybrid mind — to stimulate both ways of knowing in the world: digital and direct experience.

Screens and Streams: The river of knowing

Research in this area remains a frontier in the academic world, but evidence is growing. Schools that do use outdoor classrooms and other forms of nature-based experiential education report significant student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math. Students in Finland lead the world in math and science scores; in that country, it’s an article of faith that the best education includes time spent in the classroom — with lots of recess and learning time outdoors.

Children are more likely to invent their own games in green play spaces rather than on flat playgrounds or playing fields. Green play spaces also suit a wider array of students and promote social inclusion, regardless of gender, race, class, or intellectual ability. One study found that so-called at-risk students in week-long outdoor camp settings scored significantly better on science testing than in the typical classroom. At the Human-Environment Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois, researchers have discovered that children as young as 5 show a significant reduction in the symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder when they engaged with nature.

Cognitive and behavioral benefits accrue well beyond school boundaries. In inner-city housing projects in Chicago, investigators found that the presence of trees outside apartment buildings were predictors of certain behaviors: less procrastination, better coping skills, greater self-discipline among girls, better social relationships, and less violence. Educators benefit, too. Canadian researchers found that teachers expressed renewed enthusiasm for teaching in schools that engage their students in natural settings.

Maximum learning usually takes place when more of our senses are engaged. Yes, tight digital focus is often needed, but the healthy brain — the learning brain — also needs to pay a different kind of attention, an attention that researchers have called “fascination,” which often happens in more natural settings. This kind of attention restores the parts of the brain fatigued by too much “directed attention.” This is true for students, for teachers, for all of us.

Is education moving in this direction? Some schools are. They’re creating natural play and learning spaces, school gardens; they’re using nearby nature in cities and wilderness beyond them to connect the young to the world of knowledge. Often, they’re incorporating new technologies into these experiences.

But too many school districts are putting all their eggs on one computer chip, while reducing recess, canceling field trips, and demanding that students spend ever more time at their desks, staring at screens.

Few today would question the notion that every person, especially every young person, has a right to access the Internet, whether through a school district, a library, or a city’s public Wi-Fi program. We accept the idea that the divide between the digital haves and have-nots must be closed. But all children also have a right to develop a wider spectrum of their senses and mental abilities, to know the real world, and to be fully alive.

By Richard Louv on March 30th, 2015 

Do you know kids & teens looking for a fantastic, good ol' days, totally hip & fun summer adventure that's reasonably priced?

Delighting both girls and boys, Swift Nature Camp has been a favorite childhood experience for my boys each summer since 2003. I trust the directors, I adore the counselors, I appreciate the outside active fun, and I love the gorgeous setting. And, I love that it's cheaper than my daughter's camp! Swimming, canoeing, fishing, tubing, riflery, archery, crafts, camp fires, camping trips, clowning, & good ol' capture the flag in the woods are some of what my kids love about Swift. The break from school kids, family life, and electronics gives them the awesome experience of pursuing new and different activities with fresh, friendly kids that just want to have fun without the drama. Not once in our 12 sessions did I receive a letter from the boys feeling down at camp. In fact, when they came home, they always said they wanted to stay longer next time. I'd love for you to learn more about this camp in Minong, Wisconsin. It has been a key factor in shaping my kids into the people I love today. Check it out.

The above note was taken from a camp families facebook page. At SNC our goal is to be part of your childs development and help your child be the best person they can be and get ready for life filled with self confidence and independance. Please see our other Parent Testimonials.

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Sleep-away camp signup season is upon us, so any rational parents even considering the possibility will begin by asking themselves one question above all else: Really. They want over $1,000 a week now?

For many parents who went to overnight camp and have enough money, it’s not a close call, even if it requires a fair bit of belt-tightening. You’ve probably been talking about it for so long that your 7-year-old may well be annoyed about still being under the qualifying age of attendance. Everyone else should keep in mind that many of the expensive camps dislike their reputations as places for the affluent to get dirty and play outside. They raise money and provide some scholarships, so there is no shame in asking about how to qualify. Meanwhile, Y.M.C.A., religious and other less expensive sleep-away camps are far from rare.

When you’re considering camps, besides costs, you’ll want to ask baseline questions about food, safety, staff training and facilities. But when assessing value, what you really want to know is this: Is this a camp that changes lives? Sending the little people away is no small thing. You want it to mean something.

This week I reached out to camp experts and asked them for the single most important question that a parent should ask before committing. My favorite response came from my seventh-grade English and journalism teacher, Roger Wallenstein, who, with his wife, Judy, owned and ran Camp Nebagamon in Lake Nebagamon, Wis., from 1988 to 2003. He noted that limiting parents to a single question is a pretty good reason not to send your children away to camp, since the decision requires a lot more thought than that. O.K., Wally, I’m clearly still learning here 30 years later! Let’s go with five essential questions then.
Where are the other children going? This is a trick question. One natural default is to send a child off with a close friend, for familiarity’s sake, preferably a friend who has already been to the camp or is following in an older sibling’s or parent’s footsteps.

But your child may not be like that other child, even if they are good friends at school. And you may not share all of the friend’s family’s values. Plus, part of the point here is for a child to meet new people.

What are the retention figures? Go deep on this one. What percentage of counselors return each summer? How does that compare with national benchmarks? What percentage of counselors were campers?

And what percentage of campers who have not aged out return each summer? Does the camp track down all those who are not returning to find out why? If not, why not? If so, why are the former campers not coming back? And what percentage of children are related to alumni, particularly ones from a previous generation? This may seem pushy, but so what? This could cost $8,000 or more. Ask away.
What can they do here that they can’t do at home? A computer lab need not be a deal breaker, but it should give you pause. One comment that has rung in my head in the 16 months since I first heard it came from Richard Deering, the alumni and community director at Camp Birch Rock in Waterford, Me. Camp should be more about soul than stuff, he said.

Jill Tipograph, who helps families choose good camps, wanders their grounds herself looking for signs of stuff. “The things most parents want their kids to shed and leave behind physically and emotionally at home,” she said by way of explanation. Fashionable clothing. Electronics. (Especially electronics.)
What are the camp-only activities that beget soul? Canoe and hiking trips are classics. All-camp, multiday games and festivals. Crafts. Doing without electricity, or air-conditioning and heated pools at least. Or walls, if the children live in tents.

What makes the camp unique? This question comes from Mr. Wallenstein, who likes it because it encompasses so many of the other questions. It ought to be easy to answer for anyone selling an experience in a competitive marketplace. But it never fails to trip up some people and places.
Ms. Tipograph suggests several alternative ways to get at this one: What values do the director or camp support daily, say through a system of recognition during meals or lineups or flag-raising when a camper helps a peer? And what does the camp specifically stand against?
Barb Levison, a camp consultant, says that directors, in particular, love to talk about their camps, or they ought to at least. So ask about their philosophy. “If they lead with better baseball skills or improved theatrical ability, it will feel very different than if they answer with thoughts about good values, respect or being a good friend,” she said. Can you tell me about the ties that bind? Not every child will make lifelong friends at every camp. Still, it’s worth asking: How many reunions take place each year or decade? Can I take a peek at the alumni Facebook page, if it’s closed to outsiders? What percentage of alumni donate to the scholarship fund? How many pictures have you received in the last year of camp friends posing at one another’s weddings, a decade or more from their last camp experience?

In the summer of 2012, I happened to be at a camp when two young adults were called forward to mark a particular occasion. The pair, who had met there years ago, had become engaged the night before. It wasn’t the first time it had happened at that camp either.
This summer, my daughter will be back there for her third session.
Ron Lieber is the Your Money columnist for The New York Times. He is the author of the forthcoming “The Opposite of Spoiled,” about parenting, money, values and raising the kinds of children all parents want to push out into the world, no matter how much money they have (Harper Collins, February, 2015). He hosts regular conversations about these topics on his Facebook page and welcomes comments here or privately, via his Web site. The Opposite of Spoiled appears on Motherlode on alternating Thursdays.
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