On Thursday, April 25, 2024, Berks Nature hosted Senator Judy Schwank, State Representative Manny Guzman, and State Representative Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz to celebrate the Berks Nature Preschool’s recent Keystone STAR 4 designation, the highest quality achievable for childcare providers in the state.
Keystone STARS is Pennsylvania’s continuous quality improvement and rating system for childcare. To achieve a STAR 4 designation, the Berks Nature Preschool met high standards of staff education and experience, classroom environmental quality, management practices and center-family relationships. Research shows that STARS ratings correlate to child outcomes for school readiness.
The event provided a poignant moment to reflect; on our origins and on the persistent value of nature-based play and learning in our modern world.
We are living through the great rewiring of childhood, according to social psychologist and bestselling author Jonathan Haidt.
After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures.
Haidt’s explanation for this generation-wide sickness includes both the rise smartphones, loaded with social media platforms and supported by high-speed internet and unlimited data plans, and the loss of unstructured, free play.
Many parents in the 1990s began reducing children’s access to unsupervised outdoor free play out of fear for their safety, a fear fueled by the 24-hour media cycle, even though the world outside was becoming increasingly safe.
As a result, a generation of parents overprotected their children in the real world, while under-protecting them in the virtual world.
It was during this time that journalist and author Richard Louv published a book titled, Last Child in the Woods and introduced the world to “nature-deficit disorder” and its ties to today’s wired generation who are suffering from increases in obesity, attention disorders, and depression.
In her remarks, Kim Murphy reflected on these alarming trends,
“As an educator and parent, I had a sense that many children growing up didn’t have the same kind of childhood that I did – hopping on my bike with the rest of the neighborhood kids in the morning. Always had a dime in my shoe in case I needed to call home… If this young generation of children does not share the same appreciation and enjoyment with nature as you and I did at a young age, what will that mean to our natural resources and land use in the future? More importantly, how will it affect the health of this young generation?”
The current cohort of Berks Nature Preschoolers perform the “Ladybug” song and dance to celebrate their school’s achievement in receiving the Keystone STAR 4 designation.
In response to these data and a rallying call from Berks County residents, Berks Nature’s organizational commitment to growing the next generation of conservationists took shape.
First, with the launch of Berks Nature’s summer Eco-Camp at Angelica Creek Park, then the building of The Nature Place to serve as Reading’s nature center, and finally the opening of the Berks Nature Preschool in 2018.
While nature-based education isn’t a new concept nationally or globally, the Berks Nature Preschool was one of the first of its kind in Berks County. The Nature Preschool embodies the pedagogy of nature-based early childhood education: activities involve less materials and request more imagination; mindfulness practice in the form of sit spots and even yoga are all regular occurrences; and most of the day is spent outside, often in the Nature Play Zone.
It’s a pedagogy that Anne Muvdi, the Berks Nature Preschool Director, has wholly embraced.
Citing the center’s values, she said,
“The Preschool’s mission emphasizes the importance of instilling a lasting appreciation for and meaningful relationship with the natural world. This practice is incorporated in all of the preschoolers’ experiences at the Berks Nature Preschool.”
When the Berks Nature Preschool first opened, achieving a STAR 1 rating at that time, we shepherded a class of just 12 students. Today, our Preschool enrollment serves 65 families and we boast a STAR 4 rating under the Keystone STARS system.
“[The Berks Nature Preschool’s] innovative approach and commitment to nature-based learning sets it apart,” said Senator Judy Schwank, “The STAR 4 distinction earned by the Nature Preschool is a well-deserved honor.”
State Representative Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz marveled at the joy so plainly emanating from the Berks Nature Preschoolers, all while learning valuable lessons about the outdoors and our natural resources,
“To teach [the children] about the environment and about appreciating the right of clean air and water and soil and they’re just having a blast! I mean, this would have been a place that I would have selected for my children!”
By the end of the celebration, the Berks Nature staff were overcome with emotion.
Kim Murphy, President of Berks Nature (far left) and Anne Muvdi, Nature Preschool Director (far right) receive recognition from State Representative Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz (middle left) and State Representative Manny Guzman (middle right).
It has been a difficult journey to teach through a pandemic, just two years after opening our doors and to prove that although the Berks Nature Preschool’s approach is untraditional, the quality of its curriculum, faculty, and experience are exceptional even among more traditional childcare facilities.
“Berks Nature will always believe that nature is essential to our quality of life,” concluded Murphy, “Playing outside is best; getting muddy and dirty is best; learning shapes from a broken piece of ice is best; taking risks to gain confidence and skill is best.”
The world’s best teacher, for young and old, is Mother Earth herself.