• About Us
• Church Family
• Pathfinders
• Online Magazine
• Church Location
• Site Map

Vitamin N Deficiency

by Pr Daron Pratt

Daron has a Soapbox moment!

 
Vitamin N deficiency is doing more damage to our children than we realise, and a growing number of children are suffering from the effects of it. The long-term results of this deficiency are not yet in as this is the first generation to literally grow up indoors with an electronic device in their hands almost 24/7.  Instead of the sounds of nature to lull these kids to sleep, the beeps, tweets, and buzzes of the phone leaves them practically sleepless, anxious and on high alert. Let me explain....

As part of my job, I do chicken hatches in schools. Recently I went to a school where a chicken hatch was in progress. At day 7 I shone a torch through the egg to show the children the developing chicken inside the egg. I am also able to show them the eggs that were not growing and therefore not fertile as well.

The teacher then asked me to stay on as these Grade 6 students had some questions and would I be able to answer them. I happily agreed. Then the questions began.

I looked at the teacher and whispered is it appropriate for me to answer these, I mean I could get in trouble for answering some of these questions?  He said the questions were genuine, he was in the room as a witness and besides even he didn't know a lot of the answers.

I launched in and I literally gave the children birds and bees scientific answers explaining the realities of life in an age-appropriate manner. It was then that it dawned on me that none of these grade 6 children grew up on a farm or had access to a farm or for that matter chickens or even a pet in their back yard.

For me growing up, the birds and the bees happened all around me and I grew up learning very quickly how things worked when it came to producing chickens, guinea pigs, kittens, puppies, calves, sheep, pigs, goats and even humans. The education was very natural and very age appropriate. There was no mystery involved at all.

This is where the Vitamin N deficiency dilemma kicks in.

Richard Louv, author of the bestseller "Last Child in the Woods," labelled the condition caused by Vitamin N deficiency when he wrote his seminal book. "The term Nature Deficit Disorder actually started out tongue-in-cheek, but it soon became apparent that the term-which is not a medical condition-finally put a face on the profound alienation that has occurred between children and nature over the last 30 years," says Louv, co-founder and chairman emeritus of the Children & Nature Network.

In Louv's book, he explains that nature affects "everything from a positive effect on the attention span, to stress reduction, to cognitive development and a sense of wonder and connection to the earth." With incidences of heart disease, diabetes and cancer continuing to rise, as well as escalating mental health issues, research is linking artificial stimulation to exhaustion and a loss of health and vitality. Simultaneously, mounting scientific evidence points to the positive effects that interacting with nature has on a person's physical and mental well-being.

Why are today's kids so short on Vitamin N? At fault are the moves toward electronics as a major source of entertainment, and the fact that many of today's children are prevented from roaming far from home for safety reasons. Simple lessons like roots go down and leaves go up, caterpillars become butterflies and eggs become birds, cows make milk and bees make honey are never learned.... they are profound facts of life lessons that should be in place at kindergarten level.

Coupled with this is the fact that, rather than discovering the facts of life in nature, children are now first discovering rather disturbing facts on theirs or a friend's mobile phone at an increasingly younger age and the facts are not pretty or helpful at all.

A survey by the Australian Communication and Media Authority finds 48 per cent of children aged 6-13 either own or have access to a mobile phone.  80 per cent of Aussie kids aged 12-13 own or have access to a mobile device.  These aren't the flip-phones with the game snake on them. These are essentially supercomputers that kids are carrying around in their pockets.

According to research, smartphones are leading to a gradual increase in anxiety and depression levels unprecedented in this age group on the planet ever. While their online world expands, their offline world and social abilities shrink. Some doctors have used the term "virtual autism" to describe autistic like symptoms they see for children with excessive screen time.

Teachers report that too many primary school aged kids use their mobile devices and social networking apps like Tik Tok as pacifiers to put themselves to sleep. Almost weekly now, experts are warning parents and teachers of dangerous material like suicides, self-harm, fad diets and dangerous trends that is not age appropriate and often psychologically harmful to our children.

The average age of first exposure to pornography is 11 years old. 90% of kids aged 8-16 have watched porn online, with 100% of 15-year-old males and 80% of 15 year old girls reporting that they have been exposed to violent, degrading online pornography.

Children are taking their sexual script from these online images and videos, and all of this happens before their first kiss. If we think that Christian kids don't do this or that our kids don't do this then think again. If your child has access to a mobile phone or the internet or their friend's phone, then they are going to be exposed to this stuff. This is no simple innocent birds and bees discovery. This stuff is violent, degrading and debasing.

The Australian Psychological Association has added its concerns saying that the "impact on young people's expectations of sex, sexuality, and relationships is of concern along with the increases in sexual violence amongst children and young people."

It's time to get kids off their devices and back outdoors.

Parenting tips.

• Ask the question when does my child need a phone and when do they need a smart phone? These are two very different questions.
• Never allow smart phones and computers in the bedrooms especially when your child is meant to be sleeping.
• Balance, Variety, Moderation. Set technology free zones and times in your home such as mealtimes and chore time etc
• If your child has access to the on-line world, make sure that time is supervised.
• When your child does get a smart phone, come up with a contract of appropriate use, expectations and consequences for breeches.
• Get in early with that birds and bees talk. Talk about what appropriate relationships look like.
• Time spent with your children (off devices) is the greatest antidote to many of the issues described above.
• Get them out in nature. it is the best antidote to all of the addictive tendencies of electronic devices, and it is the best life teacher second only to good parenting and reading. Set a rule that for every hour online then the child needs to have two hours offline and preferably outdoors. This will allow the addictive substances in the brain caused by screen time to ratchet down and reset. And who knows… they may discover the birds and bees for themselves -the healthiest way possible.

Daron gets off his soapbox and hatches another chicken.

Pr. Daron Pratt is the Children Ministries Direct of the Greater Sydney Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

https://cdn.disciple.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/10120317/Families_Technology.pdf

Copyright © 2024 Thornleigh Seventh-day Adventist Church