Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!iuvax!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!rcb33483 From: rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (R C. Buchmann) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: Latin names (was: Birding Magazines) Keywords: teens, birding Message-ID: <1990Jan13.191853.19340@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Date: 13 Jan 90 19:18:53 GMT References: <2359@leah.Albany.Edu> <425@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> <428@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> <448@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News) Reply-To: rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (R C. Buchmann) Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Lines: 36 In article <448@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> sandee@loligo.UUCP (Daan Sandee) writes: (??: References unclear) >It is true that there is very little interest among teenagers in the US, >and that is a very great pity. In the Netherlands (and I believe also in >Britain) it is common to see teenage boys with binoculars and field guides ; >indeed, during the vacations birding hotspots are swarming with them. >(Teenage girls are extremely rare, though). I think in this country the >problem is within the teenage group. Birdwatching is not regarded as a >proper activity by high-school kids, and peer pressure is enormous. I agree. I was a teenage birder, so I had already committed one mortal sin. But I also showed a career interest in birds, so I was the target of a tremendous amount of abuse. However it didn't bother me. Why? I was intelligent and eccentric to begin with (e.g. I used "big words", didn't go to parties, etc.) and so I was cast out of teenage society from the beginning. However, I never gave in to peer pressure (another mortal sin) and so the abuse I received from my peers didn't increase, but merely changed subject. However, after six years of it, I was really glad to get away to college. Perhaps the secret of getting more teenaged birders here is to look for outcasts... I would also like to point out that it is a great irony that, although birding is such a popular sport in Europe, there really isn't much of an environmental movement there (yet!). Hunting runs rampant in many parts of Europe, and birds usually suffer the worst. Yet here, although most teenagers don't bird, once thwey hit college, many begin to see the light, and so there is a growing environmental movement here, and hunting, since the Migratory Bird Treaty, has *never* been as bad as it is in Europe. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- R. Cody Buchmann ^.^ "Kehaar" email: rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu "Now I fly for you..." - Watership Down ------------------------------------------------------------------------------