Treesearch

Paul Shepard presents a dazzling array of profound ideas about the nature of the relationship between early developmental stages and places experienced in a variety of cultures. Shepard's analysis is related to the schema presented in Spivack's (1973) paper, in which he identifies some basic requirements of the human species and the environmental conditions necessary to meet those requirements. Spivack lists human requirements such as eating, mating, and sleeping, along with the essential environmental forms for the activities. These analyses by Shepard and Spivack serve to remind us that...

When we engage in restoring childhood to some place in our thinking and recognize that childhood has significance in the development of the adult, its all right to talk generally about "childhood" and the "child." But as a theoretical concept, "the Child" is a fiction. We do not know enough about what children, as biologically given creatures, will do at different stages in development or under different cultural circumstances. Much of what is "known" is based on inadequate evidence from widely scattered sources. We can't take what we find out about children in one culture and combine it...

All peoples known to science have a concept of "nature" which forms part of the world-view of the culture. The relative importance of "nature" differs among cultures. In our own Western culture, ideas of "nature" are mentioned from the earliest written records, and are related to concepts of the autonomous individual and of hierarachy and order. At certain times these concepts have had particular usefulness in achievement of personal emotional balance. These values should be explored and defined, that they may be made more widely available.

This paper questions the assumption that young children need exposure to natural environments for healthy psychological development. Preliminary investigation of the environmental perceptions of 4-year-olds suggests that the distinction between natural and man-made milieux is insignificant to preschoolers, and that they find both kinds of environments similarly fascinating. Both offer rich potential for collecting treasures - an important preschool criterion of environmental satisfaction. The behavioral environments of parent and child are markedly different in the same physical setting.

This paper is the result of my personal experiences in Philadelphia's predominantly black public schools, both as a white parent of three children and as a volunteer teacher. It mentions the benefits to our white middle-class children from their 12 years in these schools, but also describes the far-different treatment of their black classmates - much of which is unsuspected by educators who could make necessary changes. This paper suggests a solution that could be implemeted in a matter of months with little effort and no financial cost.

This paper presents a "social systems" orientation for integrating the diverse aspects of environment, culture, and individual behavior. It suggests that a wide range of variables, including the physical environment, cultural and social processes, environmental perceptions and cognitions, behavior, and products of behavior, are connected in a complex, interacting system. Attention is paid to cultural factors that affect the way in which the environment is perceived, used, and modified. A broad variety of topics are touched upon, including ecological factors that affect the functional...

Aspects of perceptual development in children are reviewed, and implications drawn for nurturing spatial abilities in urban environments. Emphasis is placed on the visual complexities of man-made urban surroundings, and their utilization in training. Further, attention is drawn to the individual child's imagination as a resource in developing his perceptual capabilities and flexibility of thought.

Man's sensory mechanisms evolved by natural selection in natural settings and humans survived as a species not so much by the "club in the hand" but by the "plan in the head." That plan or ability enabled man to remember, interpret, and predict environmental events. Humans have an innate capacity (but not necessarily a developed ability) to find most natural stimuli compatible with their psychiological makeup. Many urban people do not have the familiarity and experiences necessary for them to be comfortable in natural environments, and therefore cannot enjoy fully one of their "human...

Though the emphasis in American life is upon dramatic social change, the firmer reality is our great continuity in social behavior and institutions. For example, though many strategies of child rearing have cycled through human society, the basic problems and responsible social unit remain the same. Of necessity, children have an ordered and holistic view of nature and the urban places where they live. We, in the people-thinking trades, can learn much if we are willing to listen before we prescribe.

A multifunctional building in which residents could live, work, and entertain themselves without contact with the surrounding external urban environment is the subject of this study. To what extent do inhabitants of this structure perceive their thermal and acoustical environments within the building to be different from or similar to that outside? To what degree are discrete climatic and sound zones perceived within the structure itself? What factors account for such perceptions? Answers to these questions were provided by an analysis of the responses by 246 residents of the John Hancock...