“I Wonder What They Do Teach Them in These Schools”: The Chronicles of Narnia and Nature-Deficit Disorder

Abstract

Throughout The Chronicles of Narnia, nature plays a prominent role in driving good’s triumph over evil, and while Lewis’s environmental activism in writing Narnia has gained critical attention, the connection between his penchant for nature and his educational philosophy has not yet been accordingly considered. Stemming from his early studies of Wordsworth’s Prelude, Lewis illustrates the crucial correlation between children spending time in nature and developing imagination. Lewis replaces English school systems and educational philosophy with natural images ranging from the transformation of pupil desks into rose bushes in Prince Caspian to Aslan’s emergence from the forest and subsequent abolition of Experiment House in The Silver Chair, connecting nature’s role in children’s moral development to their formal education. Lewis’s concerns expressed in Narnia draw renewed relevance with the prominence of technology and standardized testing in today’s classrooms. As Richard Louv argues in Last Child in the Woods, twenty-first century children are experiencing an alienation from nature that is causing physical and spiritual damage. This paper will explore Lewis’s educational philosophy as evidenced within the natural settings of The Chronicles of Narnia, its ramifications in a twenty-first century context and the real-world results of incorporating nature-based education into classrooms for all ages.