Outdoor Classroom Day – an initiative supported through the DiG campaign – is helping do just that by getting kids back out into nature. It encourages outdoor learning and play, and is being taken up at a phenomenal rate. This year it’s on track to reach 20,000 schools and 5 million kids in 100 countries. When teachers take learning outdoors they find that children’s behaviour improves, classes are excited to learn, and individuals who feel inhibited by the curriculum often thrive.
There is a real challenge here and a massive opportunity. Companies have a vital role to play in pursuing these broader principles of social integration, and the conditions of natural growth and development in our cities. We must ensure that our children aren’t deprived of this essential, natural part of growing up. The secret to their present and future wellbeing might well be child’s play.