This is just sad:
Linda Pelzman appreciates the beauty of the outdoor world, sometimes pulling her children into the yard to gaze at a full moon or peer into a dense fog. An educator and founder of a summer camp, she only wishes her enthusiasm was fully shared.
On a recent nature walk near her home in Gaithersburg, her younger son, 6, was unimpressed, pleading, "I just want to go back to civilization." Her older son, at 13, has made it clear he prefers PlayStation.
"Kids don't think about going outside like they used to, and unless there is some scheduled activity, I don't think they know what to do outdoors anymore," Pelzman said.
Pelzman's view is shared by a growing number of children's advocates, environmentalists, business executives and political leaders who fear that this might be the first generation of "indoor children," largely disconnected from nature.
Of course I've reached the age now when I do think of indoors as "civilization," and "roughing it" means staying at the Holiday Inn instead of the Mariott. But I can't imagine what my childhood would have been like without the outdoors -- I can still hear the echoes of "You get in here right NOW" ringing in my ears sometimes.
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My mom had an honest to goodness dinner bell -- mounted on the side of the garage. She'd ring it, and my sisters and I would come running from various parts of the neighborhood.