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NATURAL LIGHT's campaign

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Oxford Junior Dictionary removes nature words

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The quiet replacement of over fifty words connected with British nature, and many more connected with the countryside, with words that reflect the increasingly solitary, interior lives of children, is causing parents to think twice about buying the Oxford Junior Dictionary.  The list of changes can be found here.

We are calling on Oxford University Press to show cultural leadership, bring forward the next edition and replace some of the words most symbolic of natural childhood, at a time when children's health and well-being are in crisis.  Click on the button above for more information.

Internationally-acclaimed author Margaret Atwood, former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion and former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo are among 28 major literary and media figures who have today written to the Oxford University Press to support our campaign. Click on the button below to see the letter and the full list of signatories.
Letter to OUP

A counter-movement to restore nature literacy

In September 2015 two of the prominent campaigners who wrote to OUP announced their collaboration on "a dazzling full-colour book of spells and spellings that seeks to re-wild the language of readers young and old."

They have chosen around twenty of the lost nature words to "start putting nature back into the mouths and minds' eyes of readers through the magical interplay of artwork and text."


Tweet your support with #naturewords
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