The Indoor Epidemic is an accessible, readable book that educators, parents, policymakers, and general readers can use to develop an in-depth understanding of the role the outdoors has played in our evolutionary and cultural historyand how it affects their own daily life. Readers will be astounded by the depth to which a sedentary, indoor lifestyle has negatively affected their ability to live a fulfilling life.
But its also a story, the story of our connection with the world, its inhabitants, and our own relationship with nature. Its the story of what we know is right for our children, and yet what we deny them because of the imagined importance and fabricated effectiveness of indoor schooling.
The books readability, and its emphasis on practicality, will deeply engage readers. Furthermore, it serves as a guide to parents who are seeking to understand how to utilize the natural pathways to learningsimply by getting children outside.
Erik Shonstrom is the author of Wild Curiosity: how to unleash creativity and encourage lifelong wondering and a professor of rhetoric and interdisciplinary studies at Champlain College. Erik has spent twenty years in education, much of it either exploring the outdoors or escaping the indoors. He lives in Vermont with his family. www.erikshonstrom.com
Educator Shonstrom (Wild Curiosity: How to Unleash Creativity and Encourage Lifelong Wonderings, 2015) draws on his own outdoor learning experiences in this look at how our indoor-based education system lessens childrens capacity for abstract thought and damages their physical and mental health, selfworth, and emotional maturity. By going outside Shonstrom means heading off into nature to explore in order to help elevate students inquisitiveness, mindfulness, and playfulness. He is intrigued by the egalitarian spirit of outdoor learning and how it levels barriers such as gender, race, and economics. Theres a change in the relationship between student and teachel#
![The Indoor Epidemic: How Parents, Teachers, and Kids Can Start an Outdoor Revolution [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/4/3/0/2_6660028.jpg "The Indoor Epidemic: How Parents, Teachers, and Kids Can Start an Outdoor Revolution [Hardcover]")