Joseph Cornell - Sharing Nature with Children, Volume 1

Foreword

I first met Joseph Cornell at a train station in Dayton, Ohio. He had just arrived from California to participate in a thirteen-week Naturalist Training Program at the National Audubon Societys Aullwood Center. As I approached the station at 2:00 A.M., I spotted Joseph lying on his back on a small triangular piece of lawn in front of the terminal, resting and meditating on the intoxicating beauty of the night sky. As I approached, he jumped to his feet and greeted me with, as I was to learn, typical enthusiasm. This was the beginning of an exciting, rewarding relationship.

The Aullwood staff were taken by Josephs naturalness and love for the Earth. When he was in the outdoors, it was obvious that Joseph was in his element: he spoke to the trees, touched them with loveand, yes, even embraced them. He had a childlike quality, and it always seemed that to him the Earth was a place of beauty and mystery. He loved to work with children, and his uninhibited joyfulness allowed children to be themselves around him: to play Indians in the tall prairie grass, to climb a tree, to do all those things children love doing. And while he played with them, Joseph always promoted perception and sensitivity toward the Earth. While at Aullwood, he wrote a short paper on environmental games, which we still use as a handout for teachers and youth leaders; and this book is a natural extension of that earlier effort.

In todays world of overpopulation and high consumption, it is essential that we make an effort to keep people in touch with the Earth: its natural rhythms, the changing seasons, its beauty and mystery. In fact, nothing will suffice, short of teaching people to love.

Henry David Thoreau wrote: The Earth is more to be admired than to be used. And in her book, The Sense of Wonder , Rachel Carson claimed that, when introducing a child to the excitement of the natural world, It is not half so important to know as to feel . It is in this spirit that Joseph has written his bookas an aid to youth leaders in helping children to become more aware of the world around them, and to help them to know the deep personal satisfaction of being in touch with the Earth.

Paul E. Knoop, Jr.

Program Director (retired)

Aullwood National Audubon Center and Farm

Preface to the

First Edition

T he unutterable beauty of a blossom. The grace of a high-flying bird. The roar of wind in the trees: At one time or another in our lives, nature touches you ... and me ... and all of us in some personal, special way. Her immense mystery opens to us a little of its stunning purity, reminding us of a Life that is greater than the little affairs of man.

I have never underestimated the value of such moments of touching and entering into nature. I have seen through my own experience and that of many others, that we can nourish that deeper awareness until it becomes a true and vital understanding of our place in this world

I collected and developed the games in this book during years of working with children as a nature-awareness instructor. I wanted to help children to have the high inspirations that nature offers; because nature is our Mother, and her lessons are especially valuable for the growing child. And so that is what this book is all about: using nature to stimulate joyful, enlightening insights and experiencesfor ourselves, as well as for our children and child-friends.

Some people have scientific, logical minds, while others are more sensitively attuned to beauty and harmony; and still others are moved most deeply by the eternal philosophical truths. The 50 games presented in this book will open up nature to childrenand adultsof all temperaments. Each of the games creates a situation, or an experience, in which nature is the teacher. Each game is a mouth through which nature speakssometimes in the language of the scientist, sometimes in that of the artist or mystic.