Dear Patty,
 
You're giving your children a gift far more valuable than you can
imagine. From the time I was old enough to walk, my father took the
family out into the countryside nearly every weekend when the weather
permitted and taught us to truly appreciate nature.  He taught us
everything he knew about everything our eyes fell upon and that which he
didn't know, he helped us research when we returned home. On our weekend
expeditions we began taking field guides and binoculars and collecting
jars and picnic lunches. We'd head out before sunrise and return after
dark, happy, tired and dirty with all the wonders we'd seen buzzing
through our minds. Now, I'm an associate at the Santa Barbara Museum and
do field research in Malacology. My brother is a volunteer at the San
Diego Natural History Museum where he preps fossils. We didn't get these
interests from television or vidio games. The interest came from a
caring, intellegent and patient mentor like yourself who recognized the
true value of understanding the natural world.
 
Exploring nature as children taught us that if we were quiet and still,
nature would appear before us which would otherwise hide. It also
gave us a heightened awareness of the things around us, both seen and
unseen.  I'll never forget the sick feeling I had after accidentally
stepping on a nest of duck eggs and the sorrowful look on my father's
face. He didn't scold me for the mishap, he didn't need to...my own pain
at having done it was enough.
 
We talk a lot about loud, boisterous kids and their lack of attention,
but for the most part, it isn't their fault. Their minds are like
sponges, hungry to soak up input.  Confine them to the artificial world
of television sets and video games and the product is the kind of
ill-behaved, glass-pounding creatures that Andy mentioned. The kind of
inter-active museum exhibits that don't allow children to use their
imagination are simply an extention of that counter productive
environment. Sooner or later, the people responsible for producing
that kind of museum exhibit will realize that less is more and that a
dust covered pile of bones in a display can spark more inspiration in a
young mind than a tell-all video.
 
Patty, it's reassuring to see a parent with some good old-fashioned
common sense.
 
Kim Hutsell
San Diego
 
Patty Jansen wrote:
>
> Dear Mary, and others,
>
> As a mother of three of these young brats, I couldn't have said it better.
> The only way in which you get children to be genuinely interested in
> something like shells, is to give them time to themselves where they can
> relax and think. I often give my children something, a flower, a shell, a
> butterfly and ask them if they can draw it. No TV, just one video if they
> want (and those are ones we bought), no scheduled activities after school.
> The eldest is just six and I think she is a little young for those things.
> I have no aspiration for her to become a tennis champion or piano wonder
> and will for now save her from the frustration of having to attend such
> things. Instead in the school holidays we go for bushwalks and look at
> flowers and spiders. They know the names and sounds of the major bird
> species better than most adults. How can they ever learn to appreciate
> nature when they are whizzed past it in the car on their way to some sort
> of activity they haven't asked to attend?
>
> well, that was my soap box
>
> Patty
> WWW: http://www.capricornica.com
>
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> P.O. Box 345
> Lindfield NSW 2070
>
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