Connections Quarterly Spring 2016 - Environment | Page 19

age activists, had a sense of herself as a spirithe woods is important to the evolving self
tual person with high moral standards. She
of the child, even more significantly, such acgrew up in a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses in
tivities help “to foster and shape the unique
1
a small town in southern California, and alself that is born in adolescence.” Young
though as an adolescent
children’s moral reasoning
she began questioning
takes both anthropocentric
her family’s religious beand biocentric forms, but
“Teenagers and
liefs, she still credits them
biocentric reasoning inyoung adults make
with instilling her with a
creases among adolescents
up the majority of
strong “moral compass.”
whose sense of self may
activists committing
Her family did not celdevelop in tandem with reebrate holidays or own
lationships to other species,
sabotage and civil
2
a television, and encourgiven the chance. Moredisobedience, such
aged her to read books
over, according to Stephen
as tree-sits, and road
and play outside, where
Kellert, between ages 13
blockades to prevent
she developed a sense of
to 17, ecological and moral
logging, mining
closeness to desert creavalues become increasingly
and fracking.”
tures. Maia’s story echoes
important. How activists
others I heard during
interacted with the natural
fieldwork at environmenworld as children forms the
talist gatherings, or was told in interviews:
basis for their expanding identity and sense
stories of outdoor adventures and animal
of place in the world during adolescence.
friends, of co-becoming with nonhuman others. Although activists like Maia are extreme
In addition to special places and animals,
in many ways compared to their peers, their
childhood stories from activists feature famstories may shed light on a broader swathe
ily members and teachers who influenced
3
of teenagers’ relationships to the more-thantheir appreciation for the natural world. In
human world.
the stories from their teenage years, special
places outdoors became increasingly idenLandscapes and the creatures in them were
tified as socially significant and their attachnot simply backdrops for play and imaginament to these places came about in part from
tion in young activists’ memories of the past.
social experiences that occurred in them,
Teenagers who as children camped with their
with peers as well as adult mentors.4 Teenfamilies and frequently played outside, fashagers wander farther afield than younger
ioned understandings of nature that develchildren, seeking out ways to escape adult
opmental psychologists and environmental
supervision. Places to be alone may also beeducation experts say are significant in the
come significant, as landscape architect Patformation of adolescent selves. Geographer
sy Eubanks Owens discovered in her study
David Sobel notes that, while making forts in
of teenagers’ preferences for being alone

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CSEE Connections

Spring 2016

Page 17