Our Wild Things columnist Eric Brown recalls his shock and anger over a school examination and is amazed to learn wildlife and nature education seems little improved in more than half a century.

My school legacy runs to not much more than a few highlights on the cricket pitch and sixth place in a cross-country race of 300 boys.

Except the football match when I followed my patient explanation to an arrogant teacher/referee of why the goal I had just scored could not possibly be offside with a suggestion he learned the laws. School history was created as I became the first pupil sent off in a house match.

Wild Things: Could we bring back the dodo?

Arriving for a biology exam, I discovered tables littered with dead animals and birds. They were sliced open down the front, skins peeled back and insides hanging out. Little wooden sticks with numbered flags protruded from internal organs.

We were invited to name these organs. Useful if you wanted to be a vet or a poacher. Otherwise grotesque and shocking. I'd always treasured wildlife and sat down to write the exam board a stinging rebuke instead of answering questions.

Accusing the board of cruelty, I threatened to report them to police and RSPCA. Why, I asked, were pupils required to identify the INSIDES of animals when we had no lessons on how to identify them from the OUTSIDE. Sadly the examiner didn't share my compassion or concern. Two marks out of 100 set a school record for the lowest exam mark. The two marks were probably for turning up and spelling my name correctly.

It doesn't seem much has improved in wildlife education for more than half a century. I was shocked to read recently that only 58 percent of 2,000 adults polled* could identify a robin. And then only from its orange breast. So Britain's most famous, popular, photogenic, friendly bird goes unrecognised by 42 per cent of a 2,000-adult sample. More than half those in the survey could not distinguish a moth from a butterfly and one in ten had no idea how biodiverse their garden is.

This indicates a serious gap in British education still exists, 50 years after my exam fury. Identifying birds, animals and insects and learning about their lifestyles should be fundamental school lessons. Ask your children and grandchildren what lessons they have about nature and wildlife. If they don't, lobby schools to introduce such lessons.

Wild Things: The beaver is back!

Nothing will be more important to future generations as threats to wildlife and the planet created by climate change through escalation of floods, storms and drought.

Let's convince our educators to forget peering inside dead animals and concentrate on what really matters.

*Survey commissioned by housebuilder Redrow