A recent survey was conducted in the UK and the results were some what disturbing, I guess.  “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.” 

This is not that surprising and I really don’t think this is that big of a deal.  Obviously times have changed and with the advent of the Internet, mass communication, engaging video game consoles like the Wii, Xbox and PS3 kids don’t spend anywhere close to the amount of time outdoors as they did in the past.  Most kids education today is concentrated around subjects that are relevant to real world scenarios.  Subjects like math, science, English, etc.  It’s good to know the basics as you don’t want to confuse a dog with a bear but being able to distinguish the difference in flowers or birds isn’t as the article claims “alarming.”

How important is it that the next generation can identify this flower?

“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.”  So what, big deal.  I can only id a frog and an oak.  What would I get out of accurately identifying bluebells, a blue tit (ha) and/or a primrose?

If kids really want to find out what a specific bird or plant looks like they can always use this thing called the Internet.

Is it really important to you that your child can accurately identify this bird?

Do yourself a favor and take the survey (which is available in the article).  As a kid I spent a majority of my free time outdoors since my family bucked the popular trend and didn’t purchase cable TV so being outdoors was really the only entertainment I had.  However, that doesn’t mean I am able to easily identify different species of birds or mammals. In fact I scored about the same as most of these kids.

So what if kids or grownups can’t identify common birds, spiders, plants or mammals? Kids 10 years ago couldn’t play on the Internet or weren’t able to access a quarter of the information now available to anybody at the click of a mouse.  This article is stupid.  Just another bogus survey used by our media to scare us into worrying about our children’s future.  Sad thing is more likely then not the tax payers funded this bogus survey.

For better or for worse this is how the future generation spends their free time: