January 19th, 2007
a frog in the hand is worth . . . ?
a one-day stream survey workshop on the Jock River near Ottawa (May 2004).
Earlier today, Wayne and I got into a small discussion in the comments that followed my post from a couple of days ago. In essence, we were batting around opinions on why it is that some people seem determined to waste resources and destroy the environment rather than showing at least some small degree of regard for it. Sure, they may not think climate change is happening, but why wouldn’t they at least try not to waste energy or do what they can to avoid creating unnecessary pollution? If you’re interested in the full discussion, I would suggest that you read the last few comments on this post.
However, the part that I would like to address is how the general population of at least the U.S. and Canada (and I suspect well beyond), appears to have become increasingly apathetic about the natural world. My feeling is that it’s because the average person is so isolated from nature that they’ve lost touch and don’t know enough to feel anything or care much about its well-being.
Among his other many relevant comments, Wayne wrote:
Ten years ago I had students who wanted to know what the ozone hole was all about – they weren’t confused, they wanted to know *more*. Now I have students who, at the very best, simply confuse the ozone hole with global warming. They’re not interested, they just want to get it right on the test. At best. Hey, I can explain the difference, and I do. But at the very worst, and that constitutes the majority, they don’t know what either are, and they will tell you quite clearly that they don’t care.
As it happens, this morning, I left a comment on GrrlScientist’s Living the Scientific Life, after noticing that she has recently changed the statement accompanying the images of the natural world that she puts up each day along with all of her other posts. She has now provided an explanation for *why* these images are posted. In part, the statement now reads:
My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve these species or to destroy them in search of short-term monetary gains. But if we decide to destroy these other life forms, the least we can do is to know what we are destroying by learning that they exist.
I did not know at the time of commenting, that GrrlScientist had changed the statement in response to a comment left on her blog by a Grade 12 English student who had been given the assignment of analyzing several science-related blogs. The student referred to the nature images as “random pictures” and seemed to regard this as a negative aspect of the blog from the point of view of useful information. If you’re interested in the discussion, here’s the original post and comments.
Now, I don’t know how the rest of you feel about hearing that photos of nature which are usually captioned with their species name and other brief field notes are “random pictures” and not really too useful or informative. I can tell you how I feel about that. It strikes me as being a little like someone walking into an art gallery, glancing around at the paintings, and then shrugging and saying, “Nice wallpaper you got here, now show me something that’s worth something.”
Well, setting aside the student’s comment, my response to seeing the new statement that accompanies the nature images on GrrlScientist’s blog was as follows:
I like Grrlscientist’s revised statement below the nature images. I think it has become necessary to remind everyone of the reasons for species protection, habitat conservation, etc… I’ve done a fair bit of volunteer stream survey work in my region, and occasionally that has extended to leading day outings with local high school science students. It’s always enjoyable to work with them, but I’m quite shocked by how little contact most kids have had with nature. Quite a few have never held a frog. Almost none have ever picked up a crayfish, let alone seen one in a river. Most have no idea that dragonflies spend the majority of their lives as aquatic naiads before emerging to become airborne. Some panic and scream if they see a spider or a bee anywhere around them. I really worry about that — I mean *REALLY* worry — because these kids are going to be taking on the responsibility of protecting the natural world when I and other conservation minded people are gone. What will happen if the next generation doesn’t gain some appreciation for the rapidly diminishing natural world? I think we already know the answer. I believe we’ve got to do more…. try harder… to increase awareness of the natural world before it’s too late. Btw, at the end of a day of field work with a science class, it always feels good to know that at least 20 or so kids are going home with about ten times as much knowledge about stream ecology than they had that very morning.
I’m quite serious about this. I’m often amazed at how little the students know about the natural world. I think it’s because they don’t have the same exposure to nature that most of us had when we were growing up. Many of us come from towns, farms, or even suburban areas, that had open creeks and woods where kids could play. These days, most water flows through storm sewers far beneath the roads and lawns. Not a frog in sight. Parks are over-developed into urban greenspaces consisting of a soccer field or baseball diamond, some playground equipment, maybe a bicycle path, and a few trees and bushes. If there does happen to be a pond, no doubt it’s treated with some form of insecticide to prevent the development of mosquitoes – thus severely limiting other possibilities for natural organisms.
If kids grow up never being exposed to nature, how will they know enough to care about and for it when the time comes? It’s a scary thought, isn’t it? I don’t have any real answers apart from suggesting that our society needs to make some radical changes in the way that it operates or the coming decades are not going to be a place I’ll be wanting to hang out. What do those of you who read this blog think? Are we doing enough to help the next generation form a bond with the natural world? If so, how? If not, why not?
January 19th, 2007 at 2:15 am
Bev, I truly admire you for your statements here. We have much to worry about if the youth of today are not being encouraged to connect in some way with nature. I remember as a high school student many years ago thinking that there was not enough encouragement for kids to examine the natural world and explore how it is the foundation upon which our very existence rests. The problem I noticed so many years ago has simply been magnified many times over since then. I deeply admire people like you and your colleagues who share your commitment and who take an active role in trying to reverse that situation. I don’t know quite what to do, other than encourage everyone I encounter to explore our natural world, listen to people who make it their mission in life to understand this world, and imagine this world without the richness of nature. I’ve always been a believer in incorporating some pretty rigid requirements into our secondary school systems, ensuring that kids ‘get it’ on issues relevant to the protection of our planet. Unfortunately, there are so many politicians and their minions who don’t understand snd who simply want to continue reaping whatever financial rewards they can, nature and the environment and the futures of the world’s children be damned!
January 19th, 2007 at 4:01 am
Very important topic, Bev. I want to go ahead and read the posts you mentioned, but will say first that I think you’re right that we are becoming farther removed from the natural world with each generation.
Too many of the adults I work with have the same ignorance about everyday things as you mentioned seeing in high school kids. A spider or bee in the office is a serious cause for alarm! The woods are a dangerous place!
I often bring flowers in the summer from my garden to decorate my cubicle. I can buy flowers from the market in January to bring to work and I will have more than one person ask me if I grew them in my garden. In the middle of winter! There’s no understanding of seasonal cycles, or moon and tide cycles, or even how I know that the ocean is always to the east (here in NJ). Can you even fathom how these people get through their day?
And these people have kids. Is it any wonder those kids have never held a frog? They don’t recognize a thing unless they’ve seen it advertised on tv or for sale in the mall.
End of rant. Sorry. :-)
January 19th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I’m happy to find, when I go back to the family photo albums, many pictures of our kids out at some nature park. It was cheap family entertainment at the time, but I did want them to get integrated with the natural world, and I knew to start early. I think it worked, but as you point out, kids like these are getting to be the exception, not the norm.
January 19th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Pablo’s comment underscores for me something of importance – left to itself, an early appreciation absolutely requires a parent’s example. It needn’t be a huge, overweenin’ influence, merely, as Bev says, the matter of holding a frog in the hand or squealing over the discovery of a crayfish. Children love these things and remember them, and that’s the tiny seed from which later strong feelings grow.
Unfortunately all too many parents now exist who themselves were never exposed to such a thing, and themselves have never come to care about them. And it’s likely that their kids will not be exposed to any small, important things that could make them value life outside the mall or the cell phone. That’s an entire family tree swatch of individuals that is lost, barring the occasional intrusion from nonfamilial influence.
And so we can’t rely exclusively on parents. That intrusion from the outside is utterly necessary, and at as early as possible an age, too.
I actually think our schools (even here in the US) desperately try to expose kids to things like this, but they fight a losing cause. And for at least some well-heeled families, there are the summer camps that many kids are sent to which could offer this kind of acquaintance. I’m coming up with few other possibilities, I’m afraid.
It’s very depressing, the idea that many kids will only know of a creek and its denizens by what overflows from a storm sewer. And yet the idyllic thought that kids like Dick, Jane, and Sally might learn of things from a trip to Grandma’s farm just isn’t the case, really. Not now.
So we’re left with the well-meaning (including mine) memorabilia for the things that increasingly don’t exist for many people.
That’s why Pablo’s comment means something to me.
January 19th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
You know how I feel about those “random photos”–we started a weekly carnival of photos expressly to celebrate the natural world. I read recently that for the first time in history more than half the world’s population lives in urban settings. How they will know the natural world and cultivate an appreciation for it is beyond me. Not that it’s impossible, but it will take efforts. I believe an appreciation engenders a sense of protection, so perhaps a few random photos may help for those who never get out and actually see a spider or hear a hawk cry overhead.
January 19th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Everyone – All excellent comments! I very much agree that it isn’t just the kids who don’t know about the natural world – which means that many parents are not passing along information to their children. A lot of teachers don’t seem to have much more awareness than the parents — I’ve even met a couple of high school science teachers who had a pathetically poor knowledge of invertebrates (that came as quite a surprise to me!). I also believe that parents, or other adults, should try to cultivate interest in natural history while children are quite young. If started off young enough, kids don’t develop fear of spiders, snakes, etc… I’ve noticed that the children of biologist friends are very eager to learn about insects, frogs and other creatures from a very young age — which seems only natural. I’d really like to see more natural history included as part of the school curriculum, but it seems like it’s getting shoved aside by other things now. My husband works with quite a few young people, and he finds that many of them only want to look at stuff using computers – if something can’t be done on a computer, they don’t want to do it. He finds that quite frustrating — and so do I. Keep in mind that we are both people with quite a strong background in using new technology – so our opinion on this matter isn’t too biased. I lament that people seem to be getting away from hands-on experience and are doing things vicariously through watching television or looking at something on a computer, instead of getting out and seeing the real thing. I should mention something that is increasingly problematic about getting kids out of the classroom and into the field to learn about nature. When I first began doing stream survey workshops with a particular techer’s Gr. 10 science kids each spring, it was relatively easy for her to arrange. However, she says the amount of paper work that has to be done in advance of an outing is getting to be horrendous (verifying the safety of the outing, etc…). I can only see this situation getting worse until it finally prevents any chance of doing field outings. Anyhow, thanks for the feedback.
January 21st, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Bev, I’m late leaving my comment, but wanted you to know…I finally did get around to visiting Grllscientist’s blog and found it fascinating. I’ve added her to my blogroll, as well.
January 24th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
I know you have seen PeopleGeek.tv but I thought you might like pugettwon.com. The post on Adventuress in particular might interest you because it deals with environmental ed. I hope I am not repeating myself. Forgive me if I already gave you the link.
:)
Heather
January 25th, 2007 at 1:19 am
Heather – Thanks for the link to Puget Town and the info on the Adventuress and Sound Experience. NIce to see a program that seems to be putting many people in touch with nature.