Kids Wildly Out of Touch with Natural World, BBC Survey Reveals

[Antaletriangle]

http://www.naturalnews.com/025064.html
NaturalNews) British children are so out of touch with the natural world that they are no longer able to identify common species of plants and animals, according to a survey conducted by BBC Wildlife Magazine.

The results "reinforce the idea that many children don't spend enough time playing in the green outdoors and enjoying wildlife - something older generations might have taken for granted," said the magazine's Fergus Collins.

Seven hundred children between the ages of 9 and 11 were asked to identify various plants and animals from pictures. Just over 50 percent were able to identify a bluebell, with many mistaking the plant for lavender. Only 54 percent were able to identify a blue tit, and only 45 percent knew what an oak tree was. Forty-two percent correctly identified a newt, with many mistaking it for a lizard, and just 12 percent could identify a primrose. Many children mistook a deer for an antelope.

The children performed slightly better at identifying frogs, with a 62 percent success rate, while 90 and 95 percent could identify badgers and robins, respectively.

The survey also found that playing in the countryside ranked dead last among children's preferred ways of spending leisure time. Going for a walk or playing outside both ranked lower than playing on the computer or seeing friends.

Sir David Attenborough warned that the findings have dire implications for the future of the environment.

"The wild world is becoming so remote to children that they miss out," he said, "and an interest in the natural world doesn't grow as it should. Nobody is going protect the natural world unless they understand it."
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Experts said that overprotective parents are partially to blame for the results, but so are conservationists, who are often afraid that children will damage nature.

"Environmental sensitivities should not be prioritized over children," said Martin Maudsley of the University of Gloucestershire. "Play is the primary mechanism through which children engage and connect with the world, and natural environments are particularly attractive, inspiring and satisfying for kids. Something magical occurs when children and wild spaces mix."

Sources for this story include: www.independent.co.uk.

[Jacqui D]

Do you think it's just our kids in the Uk or i wonder if this is the same with most westernised countries.

[Jebins]

Thanks for this post.

It is so relevant to how we get kids to relate to the 'real' world. The 'virtual' world often prepares kids for combat and destruction.

When my nieces came over to our small-holding to see our hens I prepared a work sheet (I know it sounds very old fashioned). After handling the hens and giving them time to enjoy the experience they were so enthusiastic.

Within an hour they completed the work sheet and were able to identify the various anatomical parts of a hen.

Thankfully, we had eggs to collect. They made the connection!!

Source: "Play is the primary mechanism through which children engage and connect with the world, and natural environments are particularly attractive, inspiring and satisfying for kids. Something magical occurs when children and wild spaces mix."

[THE eXchanger]

i was blessed
grew up part of the week in the city
one weekend in the country
one weekend at the cottage
and, almost all summer at the cottage
and, we learned what everything was
and, how to respect nature too,
without interfering with things

today; most kids can't sit at a table and even talk to you
without playing with the keys on their mobile units

it's really sad

i love the animals/forests; etc.,
and, love to hike/and, walk
rather than being on a computer

anyway -- things needs to change

love/susan
the eXchanger

[Antaletriangle]

Yeah it's true-we hardly see kids out playing where i live-the only ones you see hang around outside pubs being rude to adults for upmanship driven by their peers to post on a blog on the internet!?
Even the small things such as building tree houses,making go carts,crab appling,conkering,marbles etc etc have all hit the fan!Mind you i don't think most kids would know an apple tree to harvest them nowadays!!Aplogies for sounding cynical but it's a general state of play-there are a few kids out there but they're a minority unfortunately.

[Sol Invictus]

My kids are going to grow up like I did.

Wilds all summer, winter in the snow, and schooled the proper way with proper subjects at home. I turned into a damn genius with a love of the outdoors and a survivalist to boot.

Didn't do me no harm to have an active outdoor child hood.

[Antaletriangle]

It's essential as we're fundamentally agricultural with a high tech. hope.
You couldn't tear me away from studying ants and insect life all sorts-i remember my first live horror film being an unfortunate fly landed on a winowsill and this spider shot out at it from a hole in the corner-it dragged the fly into it's lair!!Rate disturbed me for a while i was only 3 at the time-i was waiting for my mum to put her coat on to go to the shops with her.What i mean is that there's a wild world out there even in the corner of yer bedroom kids are naturally inquisitive and this should be directed towards understanding and respect.


Abandoned rectory-A.t.

[ucan]

I blame the parents

It is sad, there is so much joy in nature - I've always known this even though I'm a pre-internet techno addict. My son (3 years old) gets great excitement from all the natural things - It is within us and gets forgotten (like everything else I suppose) - but cities now have an extreme culture of fear now, a fear of predators/danger etc. - Its like the kids and parents only feel safe in front of the TV / Internet / Consoles etc. oh if they only knew!

I remember when I was a kid I heard about surveys they did from before my time that showed how disconnected kids where then (20 odd years ago) - I remember hearing that most kids in Birmingham didn't know how milk was made and believed that you had to cut the cow in half - or something like that...

[Sol Invictus]

Parents fed on a diet of state dependancy and fear.

They fear so much and so vast a swathe of good natural fun is seen as gewrm filled, fear filled uber danger that its just too much against 'health and saftey' to even attempt it.

I never died from sleeping outside, leaping off water falls into pools, caving, canoeing or swimming in the ocean.

Heck, survivor camp never killed me either.

Thats how my kids are growing up -outdoors and active.

[Czymra]

Even though some of your arguments ring true I would like to say that this test is silly.
I don't know the names of most plants and animals. That doesn't mean I'm not familiar with them or need to hit buttons all the time.
This is such a typical 'parent and green' thread.

[Sol Invictus]

Its nothing to do with being green.

It is about children being connected to their world. Concrete and steel do not a world make.

[burgundia]

I remember once ( it was in USA) I asked school children "Where does milk come from?" The answer was' "from the store".

[Czymra]

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato, according to William L.
Patty and Louise S. Johnson, Personality and Adjustment, p. 277
(1953)."

[ucan]

Friends - your taxonomic lexicon (lol, I hardly ever use big words) is essential for your survival.

It's not about train spotting the knowledge or the political ethos of the day - it's about what makes culture and language tick - what you don't know can harm you - what you forget suppresses you - The natural realm is still waiting for us to return - It loves you so much.

[Sol Invictus]

Originally Posted by Czymra

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato, according to William L.
Patty and Louise S. Johnson, Personality and Adjustment, p. 277
(1953)."

Thats right, and Sparta beat Athens because the kids who formed the army were too soft. Oh and another thing, pray do show me where it said kids don't know where their food comes from or what a cow or sheep is.

[Czymra]

Is this issue about 'survival in the wild' or 'culture' now?

[ucan]

if your idea about survival in the wild is a lonely hard life then I don't think you'll be having much "culture" anyhow - but if your still interested in "living" in a Radiant Zone then you'll see that they are intertwined and inseparable - culture is a language also...

[Czymra]

Well, there are multiple things that play into this, aren't there?
Is it culture/language, understanding the 'real' world or rather nature or actually knowing how to engage with that natural 'part' of the world.

I can just say that I speak about 4 languages, I'm 23 and in most of them, including my mother tongue, I probably can't come up with more than 5 or 8 names for different species of birds, flowers, plants, trees. The most common, no problem but beyond that, plainly no.

I grew up in the countryside however and to claim that 'not knowing the language is being completely ignorant toward it' is as blatant as thinking you understand an illness by giving it a name.

That children nowadays are out of touch, playing too many games, I admit to all that, but a study that engages with language I think, is a rather removed way for proving just that and falls into the quote I pasted before, which proves to some extent that grown ups always thing that the next generation is useless. But of course we focus more on the unpleasant kids than the nice ones, they're in our way after all.

Have a go, if you think I'm missing something but please explain yourself but spare me the cynicism, I don't know what to make of it and I do think that writing is about the worst media to actually communicate the true meaning of it.

Thanks.

[Sol Invictus]

Fish finger are NOT caught in packets.

Milk is not 'made'.

Having a generation of children who don't know where their food comes from or how it is made / produced / sourced is an absloute invitation to feed them anything and every thing.

If you don't know, you'll trust some one who looks and sounds if they do even if they mean you harm; because how are you to know the difference?

Children disconnected with the world are sleep walking into a potential nightmare.

[Dantheman62]

I think the"electronic playground" kids have these days does hurt their overall learning of nature and natural things.Another thing is location, if kids are growing up in cities then it will diminish their 'hands on training' so to speak.Books can only be an intro to the world, it's the hands on thing that really teaches people.I grew up in the country and can tell you what kind of Duck is flying over by looking, what kind of fish are in the lakes and rivers and what they eat, none of that knowledge came from books, it came from growing up in the country.

[Czymra]

Those are both sound statements. I can not proud myself with knowing nature's creatures like that Dan and I do see the threat in what you point out Sol, however I would be dumbfound if there were really so many people that would believe those two examples you have made.

What you are asking for is not a 'learn your terminology' it's a matter of abandoning cities, which I'm all for.

I just wanted to prevent everybody from nodding without understanding what this is about.

I just hope my last 5 months in London will go by fine.

[Dantheman62]

Where are you moving to?

[Czymra]

Originally Posted by Dantheman62

Where are you moving to?

I'm from South Germany. I'll go back there first of all and then see what's possible. Might hit Japan or France. But the world is open to me.

Glad I'll be out of this place tomorrow over christmas, not returning till Obama's taken over, then again maybe I'm just not returning.

By the way, I heard in some Camelot interview that South Germany was making preparations long ago. Anybody heard about that and happens to have a link? Maybe I'll open a thread.