Children in space

My last few interviews have taken a very interesting turn in that I've had some chances to take discussion beyond the (admittedly quite fascinating) discussion of sense of direction. I'll confess there have been times when I've almost rued the extent to which people seem to have such a strong intrinsic interest in the question of how we find our way from A to B because there is just so much more to talk about that connects to the human relationship with space.  Some of the conversations that have sprung up both here and in other venues (comments on the syndication of my blog feed to my Facebook presence, for example) about my last post on space and the city have stimulated many new thoughts about how we are dealing with the mounting problems of sustainability, energy balances, and the urbanopolis, all of which I think connect back to how we view space and place and how its many different forms can affect our minds.  But that's follow up for another day.  Today I want to talk about something very near and dear to so many of us: our children. One listener on the Pat Morrison show today asked me how she could help her 3 year old son find his way home.  I loved that the question was asked in so many different ways that I could have yammered about it for hours had Pat not wisely intervened with the hook, and only had a chance to begin an answer.  The most important part of the answer which remained unstated on this program but which I've discussed in many other venues now and also in the pages of my book has to do with story.  If we human beings have one phenomenal talent it is the invention of narratives.  So I tell people who are trying to lost-proof their children to tap into this innate ability.  When you're out walking with your kids, get them to practice connecting places with events by making up stories that interest them.  They have to invent the stories themselves or the method doesn't work very well, but if you give your children the latitude to put themselves and the things that they care about into the picture, they will be able to find their way through these storied routes even years after the fact.  It's quite an astonishingly powerful method.

But what I think I loved even more about this question was that it spoke to the desire on the part of this parent to give her young son some platial autonomy.  Let him wander the world, experience the disorientation of the lost and equip him with the rudiments of the tools that he will need to find his way.  Not only is this a practical gain, but it is one way to ensure that our children will feel connected to the places they inhabit.  In a world where spaces are warped and twisted by every means of modern technology from passive travel in the back seats of cars to the screens that transfix young minds, this encouragement of raw contact with natural place is no small thing.  I don't even think that it is overstating the case to say that this effort to connect our children with the raw feel of places and how they fit together is one thing that we can do to help them overcome one of the most astonishing deficits of the human species.  Converging thought among environmentalists suggests that we desecrate our planet in part because of a failure to put together cause and effect.  We don't see how our local actions have global effects.  Can this be in part because we don't feel the spatial connections of things in our bones?  The great evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould said "We will not save what we do not love."  But how do we grow to love our place?  Perhaps it begins with that integral feeling of connection that comes when we truly know our way.