Why don't we learn this anymore?

[sweatyshower]

I was chatting with my grandad and he said when he was a child he'd try to find the full set of birds eggs. He said that they learnt about native/ lical birds and their eggs at school.
how lovely! I wish I had learnt that. the little I know if from him And my nan teaching us but I didn't think they'd learn about birds at school.

He said him and his mates would break into the old disused mill and look at all the birds eggs. Some were green / blue / spotted. He knew the names of all the birds and what their eggs looked like.

I really think that would be really nice to know. bring it back!

yabu- kids should be taught to leave bird nests well alone. Pls Ty if other naturey stuff to do.

Stealing wild bird eggs is damaging to the species.

But I think other nature activities are pretty normal for dc. I definitely taught my dc to recognise different trees and wildflowers, common bird calls, that sort of thing. I think it is more the responsibility of parents than schools though.

My dad taught me the names of birds and what their eggs look like- he had a lot of books on it, and wild flowers and trees. My daughter can name all the birds we see and the wild flowers. There are some good books for children on trees etc.

We have books on wild flowers, trees, animals, birds and insects of the UK. It's surprising how often then are consulted.

I'm proud my DS can point out a skylark 🙂

Exactly. Before the national curriculum you were taught about what was relevant to the class or what the teacher was enthusiastic about. The downside to that was that some areas were never covered.

I’m ok with my DD not breaking into an old disused mill tbh. She does know a lot about local birds because my dad taught her. It’s nice, but I can’t think of anything she’s learning at school that I’d want deprioritised in favour of learning about it though.

Exactly. There was nothing lovely about it and we know better now. Even "just looking" often causes the parent birds to abandon the nest. I'm glad it's no longer acceptable for kids to destroy wildlife for "education".
The UK wild bird population has plummeted since I was a child. There are non-destructive ways of encouraging kids to enjoy nature and we should be embracing those.

Yes, all children loved ornithology back in the day. Every single one.

@Cnidarian - There is now a Natural History GCSE

It's still being developed. Won't be taught until at least 2025.

I agree they should learn this at school, but from books. My kids' primary school has trees as class names, e.g. willow, rowan, ash. But none not many of the kids have a clue what these trees look like or would be able to identify them by their leaves, bark or fruit.

Just as well we all know better now than to raid birds' nests. That does a lot of harm.

Parents are very welcome to take their dc to RSPB, WWT or local nature reserves. These organisations put on a load of educational family-friendly events.

Or you could put a bird feeder in your garden and get a RSPB bird ID book. Kids will get more from learning about the birds who live in their garden than by raiding nests.

Learning this type of thing is so much easier nowadays. We were using an app to identify songbirds in the garden. That would have been so much harder 20 years ago.

You think that until the 1990s teachers taught whatever they felt like and were interested in, like birds eggs? In any case, it was 1988

I know all this stuff. Tried to pass on to my kids but they don’t care now 😫

Now there are so many live-cams set up in bird's nests on face book and through the BBC that I expect more children see into bird's nests now than ever before

My dad used to teach me this sort of stuff, not eggs but birds and plants and animals. So I can identify different birds, bird song, trees, butterflies, moths, i know trees by their leaves, animal tracks, mushrooms. We had books like Flora and Fauna of the British isles , massive encyclopaedia type books. Went on walks most days. Had the police called on us when we were moth watching in a churchyard one night.

We should all learn:

• Breaking and entering
• Wandering round dangerous places
• Messing with the eggs of wild animals - possibly causing them to be rejected by their mother

?

Yes, great things to teach kids.

I dont think it was adopted in schools in1988. I moved schools in 1988 and it wasn't introduced until I was in the second school. I started teaching in 1985 and I was trained to plan topics around children's interests. Fortunately I spent my whole career in Early Years so I could carry on doing this.

I've just checked and the Act was in 1988. It started being introduced in schools from 1989 - so basically 1990s.

Yes and sadly some will just grow up and love writing sad little comments on MN.