Toys vs. Trees
As this years holidays season appears in the distance, a new and very interesting rivalry between toys and trees, or nature in general, has been launched. You may have seen the Toys-R-Us advertisement featuring a bus full of kids that get surprised by a trip to the toy store instead of a ‘boring’ nature field trip. The add has sparked a lot of controversy across the environmental education community and others. Below is the original add and a few of my favorite rebuttals.
I am not to upset by the add but I love some of the humor and thoughtfulness in the rebuttals. I agree the bus ride identifying leaves is not the most fun part of a nature field trip. It is a gentle reminder for those of us that want kids to be inspired by the outdoors to not make it too much of a ‘lesson’. Like my favorite education and nature write David Sobel says, you must first let kids fall in love with nature, then teach them about it, then ask them to care for it. What are you giving the kids on your life this Christmas?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5SXybm6bss
Does it not appear, however, that the ranger in the commercial is not a fair representation and they of course made it as boring as possible to induce sleeping, bored, distracted reactions out of the children?