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The manner in which children get around and the way they interact with their local natural environment has changed profoundly in the last half century. The reasons are many and the implications distressing.
Once upon a time not very long ago, neighborhoods in both cities and small towns welcomed us to walk, ride a bike and visit natural places, whether urban parks or patches of forest on the edge of town. Those were the days when neighborhoods could be real neighborhoods in all the positive connotations the term implies. I was lucky enough to grow up in such a place.
We walked to school -- including back and forth for lunch -- and rode our bikes to neighborhood stores and ball fields. Even as an elementary school-aged child, I was allowed to bicycle up and down the two lightly traveled avenues nearest my house, so long as I was in my yard by the time the streetlights came on.
One becomes particularly familiar with the territory and the people who live within it. Even three blocks away from home, most neighbors could recognize the children who rode or walked down their street. I can't recall ever feeling unsafe or unwelcome.
We would also spend much time in the nearby woods. Most of the half block across the alley from our house was wooded. This meant adventures in the wilderness without even having to cross the street. We would hike on the trails, play hide and seek, or climb trees.
Our hide and seek games could be intense affairs. Though mediocre at many other childhood games, I recall being skilled at finding excellent hiding places in the underbrush so common in such woodlands.
Our forays into those woods were interrupted one summer when a neighbor killed a half dozen snakes in the grass and brush. Mom forbade us from wandering into the woods when she heard that news, certain that we would be bitten by a Pennsylvania Python or strangled by the rare Appalachian Boa Constrictor.
It didn't matter to her that neither snake existed in reality; she was convinced the presence of these reptiles would bring our certain demise.
Despite my mother's overprotective nature, we spent much time outside on our own. But it is unusual to hear children speak of such adventures today.
Concerns over safety, easier access to auto transportation with multi-vehicle households, heavier traffic, and the loss of quiet neighborhoods with sidewalks have all contributed. From a societal level, suburban sprawl has gobbled up the forests we played in and isolated us from where we work, shop, and go to school. It's tough to walk or bicycle even when kids might otherwise be inclined to do so.
Technology has made the bad problem worse. Video games, smart phones, and social media have driven kids indoors and changed the way they interact, not just with people but with the natural environment.
It has made them considerably fatter as well, childhood obesity now the most common childhood health problem in America. Adolescent obesity has tripled, according to a 2019 report in Global Pediatric Health, "Childhood and Adolescent Obesity in the United States."
What a sad commentary indeed that we found the cure for polio and smallpox, only to be done in by suburban sprawl, Nintendo and the Big Mac.
John Frederick (www.johnjfrederick.com) writes about environmental issues.