AS CRIANÇAS E O VENTO

incursões no mundo da fantasia em prol do ambiente

Abstract

According to Henry Thoreau - Walden or Life in the Woods - we can only understand nature when we walk it and are an integral part of it, as nothing compares to the feeling of freedom that a walk in the open air through the woods can bring to the walker. It is delicious when the whole body is one sense and imbibes delight through every pore (Thoreau, 1999:149). This strange freedom creates an affinity with the fluttering leaves, which take your breath away, especially when the wind blows and roars. A sort of sentry of the earth that lifts the leaves and sends out warnings: warns the rabbit to flee from the fox and alerts children to speed and lightness, encouraging them to run after the leaves and play with them all over the place. Space, fundamental for humans, in general, and children, in particular, is an indicator of possibilities. When you don't have forests, are you not allowed to travel? Only imagine?

In this text and based on a reflection on the ways of playing outdoors, we suggest that the reader experiment thinking about the feeling of a child that doesn't run in the wind, doesn't feel it on the face, doesn't pick up leaves, doesn't play with animals, but still has to build stories. A child who does not play outside but instead breathes the saturated air of a closed classroom full of people, where the wind does not circulate except in the winter brought by storms. We also reflect on the institutionalization of childhood and the spaces and times we accustom children. Throughout the narrative, which stems from our work with children and the adults who work with them, we remember the need to relocate the theme of nature from school, to think of nature parting from play and of playing that allows environmental awareness and of different ecosystems.