Lågstadieelevers tankar om skogen : Närmiljöns och skolans betydelse

Abstract The subject of this paper is children’s thoughts and feelings about the forest and on the importance of the schools for their students’ thoughts. The aim of this paper is to find out if there are any attitude differences towards the forest in schools in the city and in the countryside. To fulfil this purpose the work has been divided into two questions, 1 Do children have different thoughts about the forest, depending on where they live? 2 Does the school affect their students’ thoughts about the forest? Two schools with different locations in the country have been visited. The pupils have been interviewed and twenty interviews ten from each school have been randomly picked as material for the paper. The result from the interviews shows interesting differences and similarities between these two schools. The children in the countryside talk about the forest as a playground where they can climb threes and build cabins. When the kids in the city talk about the forest they tell you what you can find there, like leaves, animals and berries. But almost all the children feel a lot of joy for the forest and enjoy being there. Keywords: Forest, Countryside, City, Surrounding