The Nature Principle, by Richard Louv

When I was a kid, I spent my suburban summer days exploring the nooks and crannies of my backyard, roaming the woods with my siblings and friends and riding my bike on long expeditions. “Be home when the street lights come on,” was the general rule Mom gave us. The outdoors was our second home, where we played, lived and learned.

The way of life that I took for granted is gone.

“Children’s ability to roam has basically been destroyed,” wrote Microsoft senior researcher Danah Boyd in the New York Times earlier this year. “Letting your child out to bike around the neighborhood is seen as terrifying now, even though by all measures, life is safer for kids today.”