Licensing a Forest With Changing Times

Amanda Schuster, Forest School Director

One of the most oft-cited stories of my childhood is of me talking to a Wood Turtle in my grandparents’ yard, asking the turtle if it “liked my dress,” with it solemnly meeting my eye as if we were friends. This rural landscape was the same place where I spent hours catching Bullfrogs, picking blueberries, and learning the joys of a life spent in nature. These seemingly modest activities in my early childhood have defined who I am today. As an Environmental Educator of 18 years, and current Director of the TNC Forest School program, my love of nature led to my life’s work. My personal experiences in nature are hardly isolated; the nature of this phenomenon has been researched and published in “Childhood Experiences Associated with Care for the Natural World: A Theoretical Framework for Empirical Results“ by Louise Chawla. A key passage of the paper cites:

After they told their stories, I asked them, “How would you explain the sources of your commitment to protect the environment? What personal experiences turned you in this direction and inspired you to pursue it?” The two most frequent answers were the same in each country: positive experiences of natural areas in childhood and adolescence and family role models.

These experiences don’t just apply to personal feelings regarding the environment; learning experiences in nature are important for success in future academic settings. In the paper “Do Experiences With Nature Promote Learning? Converging Evidence of a Cause-and-Effect Relationship” by Ming Kuo, Michael Barnes, and Catherine Jordan, nature-based instruction is shown to provide gains in academic achievement such as improved reading, math, and writing skills, and personal development such as better critical thinking and problem solving, in addition to the stewardship component cited by Chawla. Learners in a nature-based environment are shown to be more engaged, less stressed, and more self-disciplined. These qualities are some of the most sought-after not only for their time as children, but as the adults they will become. With such an important role for the environment to play in the formation of pro-environmental behaviors and academic success, it is equally surprising to find that the average child in the United States spends 4-7 minutes of unstructured play outside each day.

It is easy to look at this statistic and despair; what options do families have to access appreciable outdoor time for their children in a substantial and meaningful way? This is where Nature-based Early Childhood Education (NbECE) comes in. In programs like Nature Preschools, Forest Kindergartens and other outdoor early childhood education options, the goal is to “promote whole-child development and environmental literacy,” a position espoused by the Natural Start Alliance, the early childhood branch of the North American Association for Environmental Education.

At TNC, Forest School is our way to support families who see the value of time in nature as the foundation for their children’s early childhood educational experiences. The Forest School mission is to inspire a lifelong connection to nature through child-centered learning experiences in the outdoors. The Full Year option, in its current form, runs from 9 am to 2 pm daily for students ranging from 3-6 years of age. Indoor time is rare, and happens only in events of extreme weather or to use the bathroom. This is a conscious choice. Our days are intentionally spent outdoors, where we make connections with the environment, our community, and with our classmates. We are outside in every season, and learn how to prepare for and embrace the weather. We understand that rainy and sunny days are equally important, and warm and cold temperatures are both necessary for nature to function. However successful this method of education is for its participants, our program has its limitations: New Jersey’s licensing standards force us to cap our enrollment at five participants. Paradoxically, indoor space is a requirement to be eligible for licensing an outdoor program in the state of New Jersey. For TNC to license to serve more children, our organization would have to dedicate our main indoor space solely to Forest School. This would preclude other programming, and would mean that the Visitors’ Center would no longer be accessible to the public. This is at direct odds with the mission of our organization, and not an option!

This phenomenon of Forest Schools being unable to license is widespread. The small ratio of children to educators means wonderful, personalized interactions; however, to support the costs of staff and operation, it also means that the pricing of the program is beyond the reach of many families. Tenafly Nature Center Forest School represents one of almost twenty such nature-based early childhood education programs in our state, and over 250 nationwide. Only Washington State has a true path to licensing for Outdoor Nature-based Child Care programs, creating a system of providers that can serve more families. Through thoughtful licensing reforms, socioeconomic barriers that keep families out of NbECE programs begin to fall away. Licensed programs can work with organizations that provide monetary assistance, allowing more equitable access for families of varying backgrounds and needs. Licensing also supports longer hours of operation and more consistent schedules, factors that are important for families as they navigate balancing childcare with work expectations. Expanded program sizes also allow for defrayed costs within the guidelines of licensing ratios.

It’s time for New Jersey to permit licensing strategies that allow Nature-based Early Childhood Programs to serve our communities without mandating physical structures. While educators and families enrolled in these programs know the value of our daily work, we also need to make the benefit of these programs known to a wider audience. We need educators, licensors, legislators, citizens and other supporters of education and nature to work together to make the benefits of NbECE available to all children and families in order to fully reach the potential of the Forest School and Tenafly Nature Center missions.

Licensing a Forest With Changing Times

Licensing a Forest With Changing Times

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