The Nature of Childhood: Why Children Need the WildA Conversation with Nate Bacon, MA. Sponsored by Mountain Sage Natural Health

Why do children, when given the freedom to do so, play so freely in outdoor, wildish places? Why are children’s beds so often lined with, and children’s books so often full of, all kinds of animals? Why are children so naturally curious, their lives so saturated with pretend, make-believe, and forms of play that allow them to become something other than themselves? Does contact with the natural world matter for children? For their physical health and wellbeing? For the growth of their minds? For the development of healthy communities? For the future of our species and life on Earth?

Join us for a short presentation followed by a conversation with Nate Bacon to explore these and other questions as he invites us to consider the possibility that the nature of childhood is infused with our innate need for contact with the wild – both in the natural world and in ourselves – and that all of our lives might be more shaped by that need than we know.

Nate Bacon lives with his family on the east flank of the North Cascades, where he delights in his great fortune of being able to raise his children on the banks of a cold mountain river. An international educator, philosopher, wilderness guide, and writer with a Master’s degree in Philosophy and Religion, he works at the intersection of human development, ecology, evolution, and cultural change. He is a senior guide and trainer with Animas Valley Institute, faculty of Efecto Mariposa in Bogotá, Colombia, and is currently creating a project called Rewilding Childhood which is dedicated to cultural transformation by way of re-imagining how we raise our children.