As A Kid School Holidays Seem To Last No Time At All,

in fact they went even quicker when we went bug hunting, also lizard, fossil and bird egg collecting, how else do young kids learn how to climb trees and break arms by falling out of them? many a happy day was spent on Hayes common in Kent waiting in the sun for a sand lizard to come out of hiding and sun himself under a gorse bush, then if you were quick you had one to take home, much to the amazement of some friends who did not want to go on the bus ride 'into the unknown' as they would think, in those days kids pretty much just played in the street where they were born, of course if you were to slow or missed and hit your hand on the gorse bush the scratches would last for weeks, another 'war wound', but Sir David Attenborough has asked that some of the past pleasures of life are returned, he fears children's interest in science is being stifled by laws restricting them from collecting flowers, insects and fossils, 'Children become interested in natural history because they are natural collectors,' he said, 'It is a pity that it is not possible to allow them to go out and collect any more, not to be able to collect a wild flower or fossils is sad, it is a great loss to our children that they are prevented legally from collecting animals.' He believes that laws brought in to protect endangered species from being targeted by collectors have also led to a decline in children being able to collect other non-protected species, speaking at the launch of the Society of Biology, a new organisation set up to promote the biological sciences, he said that allowing children to collect and classify insects and animals helps them to learn taxonomy, the science of classifying species, well I know the greenies and tree hugers will hate me for this, but I do wish we could return to the 'old days', children are natural collectors, collecting insects, fossils and flowers, taking them to school after the holidays and treasuring them afterwards, but I am afraid those times will never return, pity.