Children should be taught to look death in the face or the feathers

[brooklynite]

The Guardian:

Every evening, when the traffic dies down, blackbirds perch in all the high trees in my neighbourhood and fill the air with an uplifting, life-affirming symphony.

And then, an abrupt change of note – chink-chink-chink – as repetitious as a car alarm, as parents desperately protect their nests from the magpies, jays and cats that snatch their young at dusk.

Spring is a time of burgeoning new life, yet death is more visible than ever. Our instinct is to thwart it. A recent jog was interrupted by a ker-fuffle of blue tits in a bush. I peered in and spied a jay, newly fledged blue tit in its beak. I joined the blue tit family in frantically trying to save their child, shouting and clapping my hands, but the jay nonchalantly flapped away, blue tit tightly in beak. Good on it: the jay must feed its young too.

Blue tits are nesting at the forest school nursery attended by my son. When I checked the nestbox last week, I saw one of the chicks had died (the poor parents must find 100 caterpillars per chick per day, so no wonder some perish) and pulled it out. The nursery decided to show it to the children, as part of their philosophy lessons. “It’s a good chance to talk about death,” said one teacher.