Hello, I'm the OUTDOOR PROFESSOR from DiscoveringTheOutdoors.com/ Here's your outdoor tip on Children and Nature. Interaction with nature is important beginning early in everyone’s life. More and more research is becoming available about this important connection, and I discuss the importance of this interaction in my book, The Nature Quotient. An important concern is the lack of environmental education in school curriculum. Starting with young children, in many areas environmental education has been removed from the curriculum. The pressures of the national No Child Left Behind legislation and standardized testing have made it difficult for teachers to build outdoor activities into their curriculum. Reduced school budgets for field trips make it difficult to take children beyond the classroom to experience the natural world. Being able to correctly answer a test question has replaced being able to apply knowledge in the natural world. A movement called “No Child Left Inside” and an
