By Monte Burke | Nov 08 | 

Nature Girl

Why Jennie Turner Garlington wants more kids to grow up outside

Photo by Squire Fox

One might think that the youngest daughter of Ted Turner grew up living in a series of penthouses and shopping at fancy boutiques. Not so, says Jennie Turner Garlington, a mother of four children ranging from three months to eight years old. Garlington is a serious nature lover, a trait she attributes to her father’s insistence that his kids get outside. “We had a lot of fun growing up,” she says.

But these days, Garlington, a journalist and former CNN environmental reporter, says children are missing out on experiences like hers, spending their time indoors, in front of TVs and computers. “It’s an epidemic,” she says. So she’s decided to take on the cause, bringing attention to what’s known as nature-deficit disorder, detailed in Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods. She focuses on the issue in the second installment of her television series, EcoSense for Living, airing on PBS this winter.

Tell us a little bit about nature-deficit disorder and the movement to “leave no child inside.” What inspired you to pursue this story?

I’m a mother, and I see my own children gravitating toward the television. These days, there are more and more kids being diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, and more and more kids going on medication to treat this malady. Research shows that one of the best ways to calm children down is to get them outside for unstructured play. It’s where they develop their brains. Research also shows that kids who spend a good deal of time outdoors do better on standardized tests. As Richard Louv says, if you want your kid to get into Harvard, the best way is to let him have some unstructured play outside. It’s really an old-school way of raising our children, and you don’t need a farm to do it.

Is it strange to be getting this message across through a medium that’s perhaps most responsible for keeping kids indoors and away from nature?

I see this as a tool for parents, just like reading Louv’s book. I hope they can learn something they can use for a lifetime.

Do you attribute your love of nature to your father?

Definitely. When we were teenagers, just about the time the malls started beckoning, Dad moved us all to Hope Plantation near Jacksonboro, South Carolina. We fished, sailed, rode horseback, chased snakes, and got stung by bees and were outside all day until dinner. Dad kept it interesting. We raised black bears and cougars on the plantation, and we swam with the bears when they were cubs. Dad was even pounced once by the cougar. We all thrived there.

Were your four older siblings also affected by your father’s love of the outdoors?

We’re all trustees of the Turner Foundation, which has given away 5 million to environmental causes since 1991. It’s in our blood.

Has the Turner Foundation been involved in any Southern causes?