Children have lost touch with the natural world

[katty]

more: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/attenborough-alarmed-as-children-are-left-flummoxed-by-test-on-the-natural-world-882624.html

Attenborough alarmed as children are left flummoxed by test on the natural world

By Sarah Cassidy, Education Correspondent
Friday, 1 August 2008

Children have lost touch with the natural world and are unable to identify common animals and plants, according to a survey.


Half of youngsters aged nine to 11 were unable to identify a daddy-long-legs, oak tree, blue tit or bluebell, in the poll by BBC Wildlife Magazine. The study also found that playing in the countryside was children's least popular way of spending their spare time, and that they would rather see friends or play on their computer than go for a walk or play outdoors.

The survey asked 700 children to identify pictured flora and fauna. Just over half could name bluebells, 54 per cent knew what blue tits were and 45 per cent could identify an oak. Less than two-thirds (62 per cent) identified frogs and 12 per cent knew what a primrose was.

[hopewell1985]

1. blue tit

you mean these nine year olds couln't identify a blue tit. what is this world coming to.

[Lex]

2. it's the UK

insert Cardinal or Bluebird or something like that for US kids and it'd probably be close.

[hopewell1985]

3. oh

I see

[Lex]

5. good

I was giving you the benefit of the doubt that your sense of humor wasn't that of a 7th grader

[supernova]

11. Don't we all have blue tits?

:D

sorry.

/slinking off to my little 7th grade hole now.... :rofl:

[Lex]

12. The Blue Tit Group.

Ever heard of 'em?

Really good stuff.

[bdf]

25. Tits like coconuts

Halve the shell, thread a string through two of the eyeholes and hang it from a branch. Not many birds have the knack of standing on the edge of the swinging shell in order to eat the white meat, but tits are amongst those that do.

Shame on all of you who thought that message topic was the cue for a rude joke. I would never do anything like that. Not unless I can make you feel ashamed of thinking it, anway. :evilgrin:

[katty]

4. family and friends of mine, many kids can't i.d. so many

animals, plants in the natural world. Even wildflowers, seen in many places, are a mystery to them...cetain kinds of ants, bugs, etc--they haven't a clue.

[livetohike]

6. It's sad. Kids are naturally curious and just need someone to

show them nature. The fault is not with the kids, but the lack of adult interest in the natural world. I guess everyone has become too busy to enjoy it :shrug:.

[katty]

7. agree

[Lex]

8. I agree. Camping, hiking, fishing, biking were all things

we did as a family when I was growing up.

[XemaSab]

31. I went camping, fishing, and so forth growing up

but if the adults don't know squat, how can they teach the kids?

-Xema, who has taught mom about birds :P

[tuckessee]

9. It's much easier to hand the kids a remote control....

...than take them outside and introduce them to things they don't understand themselves.

[LeftishBrit]

10. A lot of the problem is that with increasing traffic and building, there is less 'nature' around

There are lots of very nice parks and commons in Britain, but children may not get to them often, as increased concerns about traffic and stranger-danger mean that children don't go out on their own as much. And playing *on* the common without parental supervision is usually not permitted. We used to play on Wimbledon Common as kids in the 70s (remember the Wombles!), but since a particularly nasty murder there in the early 90s, I don't think kids play on their own there now.


So unless your family is lucky enough to have a big garden, the chances are that exposure to nature will be limited.

[supernova]

14. Yeah, that's what's so sad

I spent gobs of time outdoors unsupervised when i was a kid. We lived, I live in the country. I was free to roam about the countryside and nobody worried about it. I walked to my grandma's by myself and spent the afternoon with her. I usually called my mom from grandma's though, just to say that I was there. I always felt so safe in the woods, protected there, at least from strangers.

[katty]

19. me too, unsupervised--free to explore on my own or w/friends

[Warpy]

21. I lived in cities and burbs

and there was always a park or patch of woods where I could and did watch ants and honeybees for hours in the summer. Even in the city, we made trash dams in the gutters after a storm to create wading pools. There was always something fascinating to do outdoors and the best part of all was that our parents didn't go there.

[katty]

22. now the constant monitoring of children by parents, nannies, etc

is rather amazing, if not depressing to witness. The fear mongering of american streets, msm 24/7 news on child abduction and potential physical harm to kids (over the last 15+yrs) has resulted in kids and parents practically doing everything together. plus parents work all week so they want that time with their kids all weekend-when kids want some freedom from authority for a couple of days! My parents would have driven me batty had they been hanging out with me as much as parents today-I wish there was a way now to balance this constant monitoring of kids--kids need some freedom, too.

[livetohike]

16. Those are all similar problems in the states

As a gift, I gave all of my nieces and nephews subscriptions to the National Wildlife Federation and they received a monthly magazine "Your Big Backyard" for ages 3-5 and then "Ranger Rick" until they were 12 years old. Just some exposure to nature, but it was more a substitute for the real thing since I was living on the other coast all those years. They all grew up in the suburbs so they had access to their own backyard and city parks.

Now they are all teens/young adults, but each has an interest in Science and Nature, so I guess I ended up giving them something :-).

[Maine-ah]

13. I'm out with my daughter (20 mos) on a daily basis

looking at flowers, trees, snakes, bugs ect... She's very interested in snails at the moment and likes me to put them on her hand and watch them poke their little heads out and glide across her hand. We also have a bird feeder where we get all sorts of visitors.

Since this is how I grew up, I couldn't imagine it any other way for my kid. Time to get the kids away from all the video games and take them out.

[katty]

15. that's great-yes, get them out of the house to nature-not the mall

[XemaSab]

32. Teach her to wash her hands after handling snails

:P

[Maine-ah]

38. um, yeah

they are slimey. We always wash when we come in. I just don't want her to be afraid of these things. She's helping me get over my fear of bees. Though nothing will get me over spiders. :scared:

[rucky]

17. I send my daughter to a Reggio school

where nature is the center of the curriculum. It's amazing how the teachers basically facilitate an environment that sparks curiousity, then the kids set the bulk of the agenda for that lesson, depending on where dicsussion and interest lead then. It always ends up somewhere meaningful. Then you support it with books, art & music, and you have kids motivated to learn.

[LisaM]

18. This starts with the parents

they need to get their kids outside, enroll them in Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, get them swimming lessons, what have you. If this was just a problem with poor, urban children, there might be an excuse for it, but I don't think that's the case.

I think there are plenty of adults who don't get out enough too and this trickles down to the kids. I get together with a group of women every year and some of them don't even like to walk anywhere. We can be going somewhere ten blocks away and they'll want to take a bus or a cab!

Maybe if this was something you had to get a good test score on, people would do it.

[TahitiNut]

24. I think it'd be better if parents TOOK their children outdoors instead of SENDING them.

As an aged phart, I recall barefoot summer days walking through the cow pasture letting the warm cow-flops ooze up through my toes. I remember skinny-dipping in Paint Creek. I remember playing in the hay loft. I remember the lightening bugs my father helped me put in a jar next to my bedside at a summer cottage when I was VERY young. I remember knowing the type of every tree that grew in my neighborhood, and collecting leaves (and seeds) of each kind in elementary school. We could identify every bird just like (as loyal Detroit area kids) the make and year of every automobile.

But I also remember that Christmas and my birthday was about getting things (toys and other) I could use outdoors and NOT about indoor electronics. Board games were popular ... but so were slingshots, boomerangs, air rifls, archery sets, horse shoes, croquet, badminton, etc. In our family, it wasn't about a house full of 'entertainment' ... but about books, clothes, and small comforts along with sports gear, and outdoor recreation. "Outside" meant FUN and PLAY while "inside" meant being polite and behaving.

When I see young parents jogging with their kids in the big-wheeled strollers or riding bicycles with their infants in trailers or young kids on smaller bicycles, I know that those kids will have a greater appreciation for ACTIVITY and outdoor exercise than most. It's mostly about what the parents model by their own behavior. Kids will do as they do more than they do as they say.

[LisaM]

28. It bugs the crap out of me to see parents jogging while kids ride

Kids that are big enough to walk, that is. I know I had a stroller when I was really little, but I certainly don't remember ever riding in one (and I remember a lot about when I was little). Now I see kids in strollers who are probably five or six.

My parents were outside with us somewhat, but there's no reason kids can't play in the back yard (if they have one) while their mother or father cooks dinner and watches out the window. Little things like that could make a difference.

Now that you mention it, we used to get lots of outdoor play toys too for Christmas - Hula Hoops, jump ropes, roller skates.....and I remember something called Jingle Jumps (you strapped a box to your foot and hopped over a rope that must have had a bell on it). We had outdoor games too, and played badminton a lot. And we'd go to the beach.


On edit: I found it! The Jingle Jump!

[pansypoo53219]

20. well,

it's been a long time since i have even seen a wooly bear catapillar. monarch butterfly? right now have a mammoth milkweed pod plants and did see a monarch. hope it lays eggs.
haen't seen a daddy long legs for ages. but i do have a herd of chipmunks.

[Deja Q]

23. Well, have schools teach them instead of which hairdo or jeans they should wear.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

26. i am fashionable and yet know a lot more than fashion. its not an either or thing.

[Deja Q]

34. Define 'fashion'.

BTW: Having been called 'the boy in the bubble' when I grew up, I never went outside much. Yet I still knew what the fuck an acorn was.

So the OP and others who think it's about being disconnected from the outdoors are wrong.


Maybe I'm missing your point, but then I have to wonder if you understood my point too. Oh well. There's more to life than petty bickering. ;)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

37. there is more to life than deriding others

[DireStrike]

27. I couldn't have identified a tree or plant at that age

I Can only identify a handful of trees and plants today. Oak, Red/White pine, Maple... that's about it for trees. Birch.

[knitter4democracy]

29. They didn't ask mine.

We had our nature lesson last night on grasshoppers and what they eat and how to catch them. This week, we've gone over the various weeds in our gardens, why plants need water, what daddy longlegs eat and why we shouldn't kill them, what toads need in their habitat, and the difference between a chickadee and a sparrow.

[carlyhippy]

30. put me in the out of touch group, for I am not familiar with blue tits

Carly

[XemaSab]

33. They're European birds

:)

[Deja Q]

35. Okay, a child of the 70s, I never went outside much... Yet I still know what an acorn is.

Indeed, all the jibes and taunts about that is another story, but it is bullshit that it's because kids are inside all the time. Utter bullshit!

It's because such simple concepts aren't being taught in school or because kids are too busy playing with their cell phones in the classroom. (sorry to generalize, but that's the way of the world so I'm going to too.)

[knitter4democracy]

39. I was thinking that, too.

I was one of the weirdos who wanted to know the names of everything and sat and read the encycopedia for fun. I grew up with many who didn't know trees or weeds or birds, but my stepmom's practically a master gardener and major birder and made sure I knew stuff, and my mom always helped me look up answers to my questions.

My husband can't tell the difference between a bean field and a potato field or even know what trees grow in the small woodlot next to our house. He knows a lot more about medicine, though. ;)

[JBoy]

36. deleted - forgot this isn't the Lounge :)

[XemaSab]

40. Hasn't stopped ME before

:D

[Zorra]

41. My children were raised in the woods.

My son caught his first trout when he was 2 years old, and was helping with the firewood when he was 4, can milk a cow, ride a horse, grow organic veggies. As far as I know, he never played a video game and he despises televison.

He has a lot of common sense, and I tend to think that this stems from growing up in nature.