in the news

The New York Times recently published an article about a study by the The Kaiser Family Foundation on media use among 8-18 year-olds. The results were pretty disturbing. Young people now spend on average more than seven hours a day plugged in to some kind of media device. That's pretty much every moment not spent in school or sleeping. One can't help but wonder what impact all that screen time is having on the development on young minds. One thing is for sure - it doesn't leave much free time for unstructured play in nature.

I guess not enough of those kids have been tuned in to Sesame Street lately. The venerable vhildren's show is celebrating its 40th Anniversary by launching a two-year environmental curriculum called "My World is Green and Growing." I know, I know. Watching nature on a screen doesn't take the place of spending time with the real thing, but when it comes to high-quality children's programming with a timely message, you gotta give it to Sesame Street. Just check out this great song - Outdoors with Jason Mraz - and see if it doesn't make you want to head outside and explore your world.

I have long thought that Sesame Street would be a great place to live. It's a vibrant place full of diversity, where everyone knows their neighbours. If our own neighborhoods looked more like the one Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch inhabit, full of people and possibilities, maybe it wouldn't be so hard to get our kids outdoors. When our streets are void of activity, life and other kids is it any wonder young people would rather be inside plugged-in? Parents play a big role in encouraging outdoor play, but a bigger issue continues to be how and where we live. We need to start creating communities that foster outside play, rather than inhibit it.