A few years ago, I read about an eight-year-old girl who studied elephant poaching in school and made a poster for her local grocery store. The slogan read, “Save the elephants. Don't buy Ivory Soap, or they will die out.” What the girl had done taught me a lesson. Since then, I have looked at eight-year-olds in a different way. As an environmental educator, I used to teach eight-year-olds about the harm of elephant poaching, rainforest destruction, and global warming. I had a degree in natural science—but not in child development. What did I think I was accomplishing by putting my environmental concerns on the shoulders of kids who still believe in fairy tales?

Kids develop the fear of nature when their primary contact with the natural world is hearing bad news about the environment. If I wanted to inspire conservation action, I needed to change my ways, but now? I came across a research by psychologist Louise Chawla. She wanted to know what had gone on in the childhoods of adults who are good environmental citizens. She found two things most common. They had free time to explore the rivers or woods down the street, and they had an adult in their lives who was enthusiastic about the natural world. I understand now that what turned me into a good person today was a childhood spent playing in the field and having a dad who knew that finding a lobster under a rock was better than finding treasure.

    So that's what I was doing when I was eight years old—looking under rocks, climbing trees, and picking wild .flowers. I didn't know a thing about the Clean Air Act that was being debated in congress at that time. I didn't hear a lot of environmental problems. But I built a relationship with nature and I grew up to care. Now I treat my own kids like the child I was. My kids turn off the water when they brush their teeth and turn off the lights when they leave a room.