A reflection on David Sobel’s Article “Look, don’t touch” and on interning at A Rocha Canada

By Katy Der

Sobel discusses how the “look, don’t touch” method disconnects children from nature. He states that having hands-on experiences in the environment during childhood are more influential in connecting children with nature than learning the systematic knowledge behind it. Having been an Environmental Education intern at A Rocha, I have seen this first hand in the children and adults that visit our site, and in my personal experience here. In today’s western culture, technology has taken over. Kids aren’t getting outside as much as they used to. We, as a culture, aren’t getting outside as much as we used to. It prompts me to ask, do kids really know creation? Do we really know creation?

Reading Sobel’s article, I could identify with the child who hadn’t really experienced nature, who didn’t know creation. Sure, I went outside, played outdoor sports, and learned about nature, but had I ever actually explored my surroundings in such depth? The unfortunate answer was no. It wasn’t until university where I began to explore and appreciate my surroundings. I began following Christ mid-way through my first year of university. As I learned more about God’s character, I also learned more about his creation. It was at camp where my eyes were first opened to seeing creation for its true beauty. I didn’t grow up going to camp. It was during my first summer of university that I had my first “camp experience”. It was at camp where I made dandelion chains for the first time (as mentioned in Sobel’s article), jumped in the ocean for the first time, and saw a river otter for the first time. The little child surfaced in me at each of these moments, feeling such joy and curiosity.

Being at A Rocha, my inner child emerged several times as it did at camp. As an Environmental Education intern, I had the opportunity to work with children from kindergarten to grade 11. One day, while Ruth (my supervisor) and I had a school group come, we took them on a forest trail. Ruth told them, “Get off the trail, go explore!” I had troubles doing this myself! But once I got off the trail, there was no going back. I was like the grade 6 boys, wanting to explore up and down the hills, through the logs, and through the shrubs. I soon recognized that I wasn’t confined to the trail; I could go off trail, explore, look closely at living creatures, and even touch them! My time at A Rocha revealed to me that the “look, don’t touch” attitude was all I had known. Many children and adults come on site with the same viewpoint I came with. It is A Rocha’s hope to give these kids and adults the experience that I had – to stop and look at creation’s beauty and complexity.

When a child, or a 21 year old like myself, experiences nature in depth, there is a new appreciation of creation. I can say this from my personal experience and from seeing children and adults who come to A Rocha and have their eyes opened in a new ways. We commonly hear “don’t put God into a box,” so why aren’t we also hearing “don’t put God’s creation into a box.” We cannot put nature into a clear box and look at it from the outside to analyze it. We need to get in it, and experience it. In Genesis 2:15, man is put into the garden to work it and keep it. How do we expect the next generation and ourselves to do this if we don’t really know our own garden? If I’ve learned anything, one can never be too old to experience creation like a child. Do you have a childlike attitude towards creation?

Sobel, D. 2012. Look, don’t touch. Orion magazine