Think back to your early childhood. I guarantee you’ll have had at least a few cases where you marvelled at a ladybird’s spots (but no, they don’t correlate with their age, sadly... that would be cute), or captured caterpillars and watched them turn into chrysalises, or peered into a robin’s nest. Whether you believe it or not, those moments matter. A lot. Although we like to forget this fact, our connection with nature is important. Without it, we lose so much magic in the world. Your average Apple-product-obsessed-modern-day-human may not notice the blackbird that sings on their way to work, but it will tap into their subconscious. Studies have shown that birdsong and being in nature can even lift depression.
These connections with nature are especially important in young children because if they make the connection when they are younger, they are unlikely to completely lose it. Just this January, it came out that the Oxford Junior Dictionary was replacing natural words with 21st century terms such as broadband, chatroom, and “cut and paste”. What kind of world do we live in, where a technology-run world is favoured over real life that is all around us?
Personally, I think this is an absolute outrage. In this day and age, children will naturally pick up words such as broadband and chatroom, unless they are completely isolated, as most young people, especially teenagers, talk about such things regularly – they’re not hard words to pick up. Removing natural words is removing a level of connection and understanding that they are already lacking. Dictionaries are to extend knowledge, after all!
If you have any views on this subject, feel free to express them on the RSPB Phoenix Official Facebook page. See the original Guardian article at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/13/oxford-junior-dictionary-replacement-natural-words