Leading article: Ramble on
Friday, 1 August 2008
There are few things that cloud the mind quite like nostalgia. We tend to remember our own childhoods as one long nature ramble. And so many will inspect the results of the survey by the BBC Wildlife magazine that shows children are increasingly disconnected from nature and respond with one of those shakes of the head that denotes sorrow, rather than surprise. Half of the youngsters were apparently unable to identify such fauna as daddy long legs, or to name flora such as bluebells.
Yet one cannot but help wonder whether if today's adults had been subjected to a similar survey when they were 10 years old they would have performed quite as well as they assume.
We should remember that a large part of the fun of the outdoors for children lies not in committing the taxonomy of species to memory but in tearing through the undergrowth.
By all means encourage children to play outdoors more. But let us not fall into the common trap of assuming that modern childhood is less inquisitive and earthy than that enjoyed by previous generations.
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Copyright 2008 Independent News and Media Limited
Yes, nostalgia can cloud the mind it is true, but in the age of computer games etc nature takes a back seat for many children ... not necessarily because they WOULDN'T be interested, but because some parents have no idea themselves about how to make a walk in the woods 'fun' ... others do it brilliantly.
We have a half mile woodland walk which we have tried to make interesting for little ones in a different sort of way plus a Nature Table, which children are welcome to add to... a Pond Aquarium, with a poster showing all the Fantabulous Creatures of the Pond, with funny rhymes and catchy sayings.. magnifying glasses to study things .... and they all enjoy themselves...... even wanting to do drawings which we put up on display.
So come on schools ... put Nature Study back on the agenda ... it's FUN!
Posted by High Hall Nursery & Woodland Walk | 04.08.08, 05:08 GMT
I am a 71 year old man that was raised in the woods of Central and Southeeast Texas.
I did not know what a Blue Bell or a Blue Tit flower was until I looked it up on Wikopedia. So it does not surprise me that some of the children did not recognize these two species.
Shouldn't we insist that our State school systems should put Biology and Botany into a required curriculum for certain aged children?
Who will grow our food in the future, some foreign country, and we can become dependent on them like oil?
DFAR
Posted by dfar | 02.08.08, 20:00 GMT
The oak was a rubbish photograph for identification purposes, I guessed, and I'm qualified in forestry! By the law of averages, if it's not identifiable, it should show a 50/50 result. The example in the Guardian was just as bad, if not worse.
The crane-fly in the Independent has the correct number of wings, I'm pleased to see! In the Guardian's effort it had four wings. I don't know what that one was but it was no crane fly!
Posted by Dido Bendigo | 02.08.08, 17:45 GMT
Good point but the article didn't compare data with that for previous years or decades. I was a nature lover as a child and knew much more about flora and fauna than most classmates. But I incorrectly named the goldfinch, thought the daddy longlegs was a pondskater and guessed the oak, tho the photos didn't show the leaf shape.
Posted by Marco | 01.08.08, 20:34 GMT
Well, well. The wood louse an insect, eh? And I always thought it was a crustacean.
Posted by Sid Cumberland | 01.08.08, 16:37 GMT