Not sure about sport, but I think the last thing we should be blaming is
our school curriculum. Come to think of it, I really doubt you should
be blaming sport either, considering that a very large proportion of
kids are overweight or obese, due to lack of exercise. In fact the
school curriculum is also blamed for the latter so the curriculum gets
squeezed yet again to accommodate 'sport', since we all know that all of
societies ills and evils are a result of not including this or that in
the curriculum. What about parental responsibility or even society's
responsibility.
Personally I think the lack of interest by children and young adults in
the natural world is a direct result of our society.
Partly it is the environment. Most of us insist on living in suburbia
in apartments, town houses or houses with such tiny gardens there is
barely enough room to grow a palm tree let alone a decent eucalypt. The
local parks are kept groomed and there just isn't anywhere left to give
scope for building tree houses, (those sterile plastic imitations are
useless), chopping down a few plants to see how they work, catching some
insects to pin out, cutting up a frog or two to see what is inside, etc
etc.
Partly it is the parents, who themselves are not particularly interested
in the real natural world (as distinct from having a picnic in the local
park etc). The last thing most parents want is their kids doing any of
the above because they could well get into trouble, they could get hurt
and they and their clothes will almost inevitably get dirty.
Partly it is the government, local authority, local landholder who are
all scared silly of allowing anything which might conceivably be
dangerous, in case they get sued. (Which is why participation in sport
is dropping precipitously).
Is there any wonder that kids retreat into the alluring virtual world of
computer games; at least they are in control and can do whatever they
please.
Now back to some birding.
Cheers
Andrew
Allan & Hazel Wright wrote:
The recent debate on the number of birdwatchers in Australia prompted
me to consider the number of Australian born birdwatchers we actually
have in this country. Nearly all of the "top" birders on Tony
Palliser's Totals list have started birding in the UK before coming to
Australia, many of the people involved at Club level are from the UK
and many of the people I meet on outings are English.
Is this the result of Australian children being more involved with
sporting activities during their school years or does it reflect a
gaping hole in our school curriculum? How can we change the
perception that birdwatching is for dorks, retirees, or just dorky
retirees?
Hazel Wright
Canberra ACT
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