Hedgehogs
I don’t know whether clay modelling is still something that children do at school. I came across these dusty hedgehogs that my children made when they were about eight years old. I suspect they had the same class teacher, two years apart, and perhaps the study of hedgehogs or other small mammals was part of the curriculum. It was definitely before the advent of the Great Education Reform Bill of 1988, always called Gerbil, but officially labelled the Education Reform Act.
Gareth's hedgehog had a very prominent nose. Perhaps his teacher made much of the hedgehog's predation on insects, snails, frogs, mushrooms and other delicacies.
Before the National Curriculum was established, teachers were freer to follow their own pursuits and interests, to go off at a tangent. This worked well for those who still felt that children should be ’well grounded’ in the basics, the well-known Three Rs, but were able to interest their classes in other things. I well remember one seven-year-old excitedly telling her mother, ‘Mrs Cooke made fog!’
Anyway, the little hedgehogs my son and daughter made were brought home proudly to be displayed. My son’s work of art was intended to be a money box, with a slot in the top. Whether that was his idea or the whole class was encouraged to make money boxes, I don’t know. When his younger sister made hers, it did not benefit from a slot.
We used to see hedgehogs in the garden from time to time, but I haven’t seen one for an exceptionally long time. Our Jack Russell, Daisy, used to find one occasionally and come in covered in fleas. That was almost forty years ago. Fortunately, hedgehog fleas don’t survive on anything other than hedgehogs.
I’ve just found out that there are seventeen species of hedgehogs, though there are none in Australia and none now living in the Americas. New Zealand hedgehogs are an introduced species, as they are in the Outer Hebridean islands of Benbecula and North Uist.
They are distantly related to the much smaller shrews. Although their prickly spines are usually brown, the hedgehogs of Alderney, in the Channel Islands, are blonde.
In Britain, the population of rural hedgehogs has declined rapidly since 2000.
I have a hedgehog in my garden! But like your two, he's pretty stationary and hard.
ReplyDeleteThat's the most satisfactory sort, out in all weathers and seasons.
DeleteWhat great memories. It's lovely that you still have them. One year, when I was staying with Mum, I looked out of the flat window and there was one in the common back garden. I managed to actually get a couple of photos before it hurried away.
ReplyDeleteWell done! I've never managed to photograph a hedgehog.
DeleteI don't believe I've ever seen a live hedgehog.
ReplyDeleteHedgehogs don't live in the States.
DeleteAre porcupines hedge hogs. We have lots of porcupines here.
ReplyDeletePorcupines are a different species altogether. We don't have those in UK.
Delete17 species of Hedgehogs! I thought there was only one kind. They're cute as a money box or paperweight. I prefer the days when kids learned the three R's and were able to also learn odd things the teachers thought of. These day everyone HAS to stick to the curriculum and everything noted in hours and hours of unecessary paperwork.
ReplyDeleteI agree. We cram so much into the curriculum that nothing seems to be covered in depth. It is shameful that children are leaving primary school unable to read and write.
DeleteGareth's and Susannah's hedgies are adorable!!! As you said, we have none here but many do keep them as pets. I'm not certain that's necessarily a great idea, but who am I to say? Children in elementary-level public schools here used to make just little clay (unglazed) pots but my son went to parochial school so I have no hedgehogs nor pots to treasure. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI only recently discovered that some people keep hedgehogs as pets, I'm not sure how I feel about that.
DeleteReally cute. Interesting about the different species. We need to mate the hedgehog fleas with the dog and cat fleas here so they'll croak too on their own. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteIt's strange how fleas from different species only survive on their hosts - you'd have thought any blood would do!
DeleteYour daughter's hedgehog looks quite lifelike in its proportions and shape, and she was only 8 when she made that!
ReplyDeleteOur gardens are too tidy and our roads too busy. Hedgehogs need places where they can hide, and find food, and they don't do traffic very well.
We have some in the large old gardens in my immediate neighbourhood; I have seen and heard them several times over the years but not in a while.
Hedgehogs have no road awareness and certainly cannot learn from their mistakes. 😧
DeleteId love to send you a consignment of hedgehogs from here (NZ) - poor wee hedgehogs have gone on the unwelcome introduced species list - pests. I do wonder why humans haven't made the list; there are so many more of those.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Poor hedgehogs didn't ask to be introduced to an alien landscape. Mankind is the worst of the lot, though, for destruction of species.
DeleteThose little clay hedgehogs carry both creativity and a glimpse of the past, even as real hedgehogs have sadly become so rare in our gardens today.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad to think that some people will never see a live hedgehog in the wild.
DeleteWe used to have a family of hedgehogs in our garden down in Sussex but we haven't seen many up here for a while. There must be a few around as we find their droppings on the grass but the hogs themselves remain elusive.
ReplyDeleteSeeing signs of them is hopeful.
DeleteEvery so often I come across something that the children made... I'm glad I haven't been much good at 'minimalist living'.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a joy to come across something a child made many years ago.
DeleteI do miss seeing hedgehogs in the garden, I'm sure the expanding numbers of foxes has not helped them. I still have spaces where they used to sleep, just in case they are needed again.
ReplyDeleteI hope they will return. They're so useful in the garden.
DeleteI have never seen a hedgehog. What fun little treasures these two are
ReplyDeleteI find hedgehogs very endearing. There are a number of hedgehog rescue places here.
DeleteI didn't know New Zealand hosted foreign hedgehogs.
ReplyDeleteI suppose expanding urban areas are responsible for the decline in the population of English hedgehogs?
Housing developments have not helped our hedgehogs.
DeleteI do remember that we used to use modeling clay in school. And also plaster of Paris and paper mache. Don't know if any of the kids get to do this today. However I was in a craft store last fall and I did see that modeling clay is still for sale.
ReplyDeleteChildren enjoy the squidginess of clay and plasticine - mud pies in a controlled form!
DeleteA few years ago we visited the UK and spent time at the home of a fellow blogger (now, sadly, deceased) and he went to great lengths to attract hedgehogs to his yard. My wife was thrilled to see them, (as was I, of course), but she developed a special affection for them. I have a couple of decent books on these spiny beauties.
ReplyDeleteThey are such appealing beauties and a great favourite in children's stories.
ReplyDeleteMy son made a hedgehog too! I'll have to do a blog about it too.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of my son at a similar age, only his was a bridge - Billy Goat Gruff. I still have it as a nice piece of pottery. Many people make the effort to save hedgehogs, but road carnage is a factor sadly.
ReplyDeleteBack when I lived in the UK, I was staying with friends near Chester. They used to leave food out for a hedgehog who lived in their garden. I saw him a time or two at dusk, dining! I remember thinking he was smaller than I'd expected. Not much bigger than a mouse.
ReplyDeleteAww, precious memories in the artwork.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was teaching I used to teach ceramics and the children loved it. I have an odd shaped shoe made by my son, when in his school.. my son is 60 this year!
ReplyDelete