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Re: generalizations




: I just finished reading _The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild
: Places_ by Gary Paul Nabhan and Stephen Trimble, and in one of his essays,
: Nabhan points out that even among children with easy access to wild places,
: the children estimate that most of their knowledge of the wild comes from
: TV (50%), with a lesser amount from school (30%), and almost nothing from
: spending time outside with peers or parents (10%).  They know more about
: the giant panda than they know about the house wren, or lizard, or ground
: beetle in their own territory.  When three groups of kids from the desert
: southwest were asked if they'd ever spent as much as a half-hour on their
: own in a wild place (basically their backyard in this case), only about 40%
: said yes.  Kids rarely collect things such as rocks and insects and shells
: anymore, or build forts in caves and trees--they watch TV and play video
: games.  Kids, and even their parents, have little or no connection to the
: land, so how how can anyone expect that they will want to preserve it, even
: in an agricultural context?  

I certainly won't claim to be a perfect parent, but I think that a 
parent's role in exposing their children to gardens and nature is 
critical. My two girls (6 & 3) are only in front of the tube for the half 
hour or so after work that I am preparing dinner - they usually watch 
Magic School Bus or Kratt's Creatures. 

We have a pile of collected rocks at the side door and I had to convince 
my eldest why we should let her growing collection of ladybugs go. We 
were at a National Park on the weekend and I had to explain why 
collecting shells, feathers and other things is not allowed because the 
animals need them for nests and shelter and if everyone took some there 
would be none left. And last night the two were fighting over who got to 
carry the next pumpkin I cut back up to the house.

There is still hope....

Rob