When starting out as a teacher, I heard Joseph Cornell say that
keeping children inside one room five days a week is akin to
breaking a horse. I’m haunted by that analogy. Our tendency is
to keep children in, especially as academic demands only
increase. And for discipline or missed work what do we do? Keep
them in at recess. Breaking horses. What would happen if we gave
students opportunities to go outside and interact with the
natural world as part of the school day? Does a natural
classroom give us a way to maintain our students’ inner
wildness, as Mercogliano calls it?* We know that nature is
critical in children’s development. We know that children are
losing access to independent explorations in nature. Schools can
provide children with experiences in nature, and typically,
nature contact is not part of our national public schooling
agenda. Yet. As teachers, we need to give children opportunities
to be more than academics. Audrey was a sixth grade girl in a
school with a schoolyard habitat that was used