Country life mystifies primary pupils

A foreign country?

Schoolchildren display an ignorance of countryside matters which advocates of country living find alarming.

Schools are being asked to incorporate more about the countryside into the curriculum.

Gamekeeper and pheasant: Mystery creatures

Two out of three primary pupils in the Greater London area did not know where acorns come from - "the squiril" was one suggestion.

Four out of five did not know what a gamekeeper does - "looking after all the pokemans" was one child's effort.

The research involved a questionnaire supervised by teachers of 250 London children aged between seven and 14, done in May for Country Life magazine.

There was then a national survey of 398 schoolchildren aged seven to 10, carried out by Carrick James Market Research.

Their fieldwork - as it were - was done in August and September.

'Serious implications'

More than a quarter of the children were unable to identify a pheasant and one in three could not say why gates should always be shut in the countryside.

Why would you keep a gate closed?

Country Life's editor, Clive Aslet, is concerned at "the raising of a generation of children who are almost entirely divorced from the natural world".

He said this had "very serious implications ... for public policy in the areas of agriculture, food production and the countryside".

Mr Aslet has convened a forum of concerned parties including children's broadcasters, the Countryside Foundation for Education (CFE), the National Farmers Union, the National Trust and the Country Landowners' Association.

He has asked CFE, an educational charity, to help him produce a teaching aid for the Country Life website.

He has also called on school governors to influence the way the curriculum is taught by organising farm visits, or just getting children to draw leaves and flowers in art classes.

In the primary school science curriculum in England and Wales, children are supposed to learn about plant and animal life cycles and habitats - although with a focus on exploring "the local environment".