As the nature specialist for the Fresh Air Fund's Camp Pioneer in Fishkill, New York, I work with 12-15 year old inner city boys from New York City. Boys who come from tough backgrounds and come with even tougher attitudes. Boys whose use of profanity makes Andrew Dice Clay sound like a sweet grandmother. Boys who are angry and relish getting others angry. Boys with dreams and hopes and visions of success. Boys with kind hearts who long for attention and someone to believe in them. Boys trying to be men without ever getting the chance to be a child. On the first day they come to the nature program, I take them on a rope course through the forest which they complete blindfolded. I talk with them about their fears and their experiences with nature. For many, this is their first time in the woods, totally surrounded by nature. They have grown up on cement playgrounds and crowded streets; wandered through dangerous alleys and abandoned buildings. Some kids will thrive in this environment and become great successes, but when do they get to roll down a grassy hill laughing with sheer excitement or play hide and seek in an overgrown meadow or sit on the top branch of the tallest tree dreaming of what they can be? We collect frogs and toads and newts and snakes. This is often their first contact with anything wild. I'll never forget the look on one of the toughest campers' face as he held a turtle for the first time and glanced over at me, eyes filled with fear, nervousness and elation. Then there was the campstead who never could manage to get along, yet sat in almost complete silence for an hour, watching the laws of nature in action as the snake stalked a frog.