Before I became a full-time “peasant,” I was an environmental educator, tasked with instilling nature stewardship in young minds. My boss gave me benchmarks for my nature hikes and stream surveys: “Educate students about river pollution,” “Inform students of regional endangered species,” or “Equip students to understand recycling.” While I did my utmost to engage with my young tag-alongs and give them an outdoor adventure, I noticed a disturbing trend. When the kids talked about their own relationships with nature, they were full of guilt and fear.
Through the unrelenting stream of information now available in the modern age, the kids’ young minds were too swiftly saddled with the knowledge of deforestation, escalated weather reports, forest fires, extinct species, polluted waterways, and grave-faced celebrities telling them to “do better.” Well meaning but heavy-handed programs laid these big, scary problems at their feet, and then offered little recourse
