{"id":60811,"date":"2023-12-29T23:00:06","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/dec\/29\/a-classroom-without-walls-new-zealands-nature-schools-emphasise-mud-over-maths"},"modified":"2023-12-29T23:00:06","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T14:00:06","slug":"a-classroom-without-walls-new-zealands-nature-schools-emphasise-mud-over-maths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=60811","title":{"rendered":"A classroom without walls: New Zealand\u2019s nature schools emphasise mud over maths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are now dozens of nature schools across New Zealand where children learn about foraging, planting trees and trapping pests<\/p>\n<p>Ashton Wilcox, 8, points to a dead hedgehog snagged in the rocks of a stream at Battle Hill, a farm 45 minutes north of New Zealand\u2019s capital city Wellington. \u201cLook, its insides are moving\u201d he says with alarm, examining the quills now colonised by maggots.<\/p>\n<p>A teacher nearby gently advises Ashton not to touch the animal, then explains hedgehogs are a pest in New Zealand and that the maggots are breaking down its remains. Ashton watches a moment longer in curious horror, before bouncing back up the stream to join a group of excitable children who are feeding a writhing mass of eels.<\/p>\n<p>Children cross a stream during a Nature School activity day. Director\/Kaiako, Bush Sprouts Nature School NZ Trust, Leo Smith, Penelope Toomath (4) and Reid Payne (6) look at eels in a stream (bottom)<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/dec\/29\/a-classroom-without-walls-new-zealands-nature-schools-emphasise-mud-over-maths\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are now dozens of nature schools across New Zealand where children learn about foraging, planting trees and trapping pestsAshton Wilcox, 8, points to a dead hedgehog snagged in the rocks of a stream at Battle Hill, a farm 45 minutes north of New &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4075,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,65,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-environment","category-new-zealand"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4075"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60812,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60811\/revisions\/60812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}