Buzzing and Gawping

If you wait long enough things come round again and that applies particularly to fads connected with education. I remember being in the company of an educator of the 'old school',  an inspiring stand-and-deliver teacher. He had been observing some results of the then new trend for taking kids on trips out in the countryside 50 years ago. Having watched a few examples and being unimpressed, he remarked:

"Well we hear a lot of criticism of 'chalk and talk', but a deal of what I've seen here is little more than 'walk and gawp'."

The conservation industry having signed up to marketing themselves on Twitter and Facebook have become convinced that their twitterings are the new fads. But it's actually them talking amongst themselves and they might as well be a few sparrows chirping in my boundary hedge.

Cliches are everywhere. I really thought we were starting to say goodbye to phrases like "There's a real buzz...", but apparently not.

This is from a blog on Natural England's website.

All this is a new opportunity for propaganda, like Eastern Moors' cringe-making Ranger Tots. But, sadly perhaps, there's no evidence it works. Otherwise the generations of children who were taken out on school trips into the countryside in the 70s and 80s would by now, as adults, be respecting nature more than they do. The problem is that once you institutionalise something there's a serious danger that kids will get turned off - not perhaps immediately - but later on.

There's a lot could be said about children and nature. In my experience, for what it's worth, children learn best about the value of the outdoors when they have freedom to explore; and adults, especially those with an agenda, are a huge turn-off. And one thing we can be sure of, the whole conservation industry has an agenda along with the farmers and shooters. Those with a child's spirit and freedom are the ones who come closest to understanding what's valuable about the outdoors and nature.