View Full Version : This is frankly, quite scary...
Flibster
28-03-2008, 22:19
My sister is 23...
She's done A levels and is at college. So, she's not immensely thick.
Just found out from lending her Apollo 13 on DVD that she didn't know that man had walked on the moon.
W...T...F... ?!?!?!!?!
She even asked her friends about it for me - out of 6 people she asked, 4 didn't know!
I'm just about speechless about this. Nice to see that 20th century history is being taught well. I've leant her a couple of DVD's on the Apollo missions for her to watch - I wish I could get the complete moon landing videos too. Shame NASA don't actually know where the master tapes are. All we have are the crap copies due to NASA broadcasting in a format the networks couldn't handle and having to bodge a solution.
If I liked little bastards, I'd consider teaching 20th century history myself. WW1, WW2, Cold War, space race, first flight, Russian revolution, discovery of King Tut's tomb, Vietnam etc.....
I'll just have to get back to going to Duxford and helping out there.
Simon/~Flibster
That is absolutely amazing. Do they not teach anything at schools these days? Mind you, is it something that you should really need to be taught at school to actually know it happened? I'm not sure if it is or not. Maybe we take some of our own school education for granted?
WW1, WW2, Cold War, space race, first flight, Russian revolution, discovery of King Tut's tomb, Vietnam etc.....
All of which, bar the Egyptian stuff, is taught in GCSE History, which sadly, is an optional GCSE.
I thought I knew a reasonable amount about space travel till I went to the Kennedy Space Centre, learned more that day than I did over my life.
Justsomebloke
29-03-2008, 00:54
That doesn't surprise me. I am told by young people that i am Intelligent & know everything because i can tell them when & where WWII started & why or something equally simple/well known. You tell them that Apollo 13 had the power of a Calculator & they laugh at you. You tell them about the big bang & they reply "You're Kidding" Talk to them about chaos theory or Quantum mechanics/physics & they fall asleep.
What is bad about all this is i am just about as un educated as you can get & they think i am clever, God help the world & the future of this Planet.
Blackstar
29-03-2008, 00:54
They do teach it. It annoys me when people assume 'young people' know nothing about the past, a lot of us do but others make us look like idiots.
What is bad about all this is i am just about as un educated as you can get
Whilst I don't know your past well enough to know how literally educated you were via schooling, you are far from an uneducated bloke malc :p
Mohinder
29-03-2008, 03:04
My sister is 23...
She's done A levels and is at college. So, she's not immensely thick.
Without wishing to sound offensive, the rest of your post seems to suggest her and her friends are, in fact, immensely thick, or at the very least frighteningly ignorant.
Then again, I'm sure there's a million things that she, as an educated type, would be shocked to find out I have no idea about.
Like.. maths :(
I'm just about speechless about this. Nice to see that 20th century history is being taught well. I've leant her a couple of DVD's on the Apollo missions for her to watch - I wish I could get the complete moon landing videos too. Shame NASA don't actually know where the master tapes are. All we have are the crap copies due to NASA broadcasting in a format the networks couldn't handle and having to bodge a solution.
If I liked little bastards, I'd consider teaching 20th century history myself. WW1, WW2, Cold War, space race, first flight, Russian revolution, discovery of King Tut's tomb, Vietnam etc.....
It sounds like you're working on the basis that 20th century history is the only history relevant to young people?
Edit: I'm inclined to agree with Mohinder too.
Mohinder
29-03-2008, 03:10
In fairness, it probably is the most important chunk to people alive these days. Not that it all isn't, of course... but to be honest I don't think I was ever even taught the moon landings... it's just something people know, surely?
Not at all. How about the rise and fall of the British Empire for instance? Or the formation of the German state - it is impossible to fully understand WWI without a basic appreciation of how the various Germanic states were unified under Bismarck.
A little bit of 18th and 19th century British political history is essential to understanding the modern political parties. Disraeli and Gladstone anyone?
How about the abolition of slavery in the United States?
The Russian Revolution in 1918 was mentioned - the entire Communist/socialist movement is irrelevant outside of the context of Tsarism (pre-1900).
Why not go right back though? Do kids these days understand why there are fundamental differences between the Catholic and Protestant churches? They might not impact life in England, but they certainly do in Ireland.
Another key factor in British history that I am sure most young people haven't got the first idea about is the English Civil War. In fact, I wager many of them don't even know there was one!
Just a few thoughts...
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it
Pretty much sums it up. Problem is there is just way too much history to try and remember, so we end up going in circles, repeating past mistakes because the particulars of those previous mistakes are unknown, and by the time we realise the similarities its too late; or we swear its different this time.
Justsomebloke
29-03-2008, 10:11
^^ Agreed but it comes to something when kids in this Country don't even know why they are Church of England or why they now live the Free lives they have.
I've said before that somebody once told me the Moon was the Sun & actually believed it, that particluar womans kids were a Disgrace when it came to knowledge. Fantastic kids don't get me wrong i really clicked with them but ask them anything about the Planet or the World or History & they just looked at you with Blank faces :(
Justsomebloke
29-03-2008, 11:35
On a side note my History teacher was David Ackfield who was a Spin bowler for Essex when they won the league around the end of the 70's.
He was a complete **** & a useless teacher who i would like to batter to be quite ****** honest. I have a Personal passion for history given to me by my Grandad & Ackfield killed it. I got back into History after leaving school & it is without doubt one of my favourite subjects. For me if it isn't/wasn't real then i don't want to know about it.
History to me is Everything.
This is the Destroyer of young minds here.
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/8484.html
Justsomebloke
29-03-2008, 11:41
He never taught anything though the complete *******.
We would be lining up outside the classroom, He would walk past us & into the classroom leaving the door open saying Nothing. then he would just walk up to the blackboard & start writing on it super fast from a text book he held in his other hand. He used to write really fast & if you hadn't copied it before he rolled the blackboard round it was Tuff & you were expected to get it off somebody else. He never interacted with us or told us verbally anything at all apart form Shut the **** up & write.
Complete & utter waste of space & a waste of all the young minds he had influence over.
Even the Boffs in our class used to struggle & i cannot think of one person even the quiet girl who never spoke liking him.
Death to Ackfield the **** ;D
Justsomebloke
29-03-2008, 11:42
Malc Never forgets an Enemy :evil:
Eyes nose about the peoples on the moon!
(I also know that it's actually made of cheese.)
;)
I am slightly shocked at that... it's quite a well known general knowledge kind of thing!
Equally, I know sometimes I do lack in the general knowledge area at the best of times, so maybe it's just one of those things?
ie. On the Phone to NHS Direct about my wooziness:
Nurse: "Have you suffered a bang to your head?"
Me: "Nup"
Nurse: "Have you suffered any tingling sensations in your arms or elsewhere?"
Me: "Nup"
Nurse: "Have you suffered any palpitations?"
Me: "Not as of late. Though I did have this weird eczema thing over my hand last week. Drove me mad - very itchy and sore. Like Blisters they were. So I kinda had a rash, but it's definitely not related."
Nurse: "Erm. Okay. But palpitations means irregular heart beats."
Me: "Oh" *silent* "Oops"
I also don't know much about Mister Churchill (unless you're speaking of the telephone on wheels). Picky did an impression of him when playing Cranium and I didn't have a clue. Thought he was pretending to be that cigar smoking dude from quantum leap or something.
So yeh. Poor girl. Maybe she got confused with all this nonsense about it being staged?
*shrugs*
Justsomebloke
29-03-2008, 12:07
Laughs at Pheebs then Hugz her in a cute kind of softy girly way :)
semi-pro waster
29-03-2008, 12:07
I'm surprised to hear that your sister didn't know about the moon landings (or judging by the internet wasn't going "OMFG it's a conspiracy, man never landed on the moon") but a gap like that suggests there could be other equally large holes in her knowledge of the subject. However while there are certain things I would generally expect everyone to know not everyone finds history interesting - I do, although I only studied it to Standard Grade level, yet I got my lowest mark for the whole lot in it (a 3), I'm still not convinced they didn't just lose my paper for the credit section because it is a heck of a lot easier to get a lower credit pass than a high general one - not that I'm bitter or nuffink. :)
Justsomebloke
29-03-2008, 12:29
Same as me. I didn't really take Geography in unless it related to a History situation in my head. Like i wanted to know where certain places in the world was sort of thing.
The only thing that kept me interested in Geography was Miss Tillitson :p
On the other hand i had many long discussion about history with older people & most of the time there own history knowledge was slotted into a time/period/situation that was personal to them rather than them be interested in general history.
For me i am so much into history i can stand in an old building just staring at the architecture, once that has passed i have to move on to the individual history of the place & then the personal accounts of people from that building/area/country.
My thirst for Accurate historical knowledge is unquenchable.
lol Peebs, the telephone on wheels is Direct Line, not Churchill. D- ;)
I KNEW THAT! It's my Labyrynthitus Brain! It confused me!
.... honest....
*hangs head in shame*
;)
You know what Flibster, I think you should get ALL of your 20 - odd - year - old sisters friends around for a lumber party so you can educate them.... ;) :D
You know what Flibster, I think you should get ALL of your 20 - odd - year - old sisters friends around for a lumber party so you can educate them.... ;) :D
Lumber? Wood? 20 year old girls?
Well deserving of a Fnarr I think.. ;)
To be honest given all I learnt in history from years 7-11 was 20th century (and this was a good 9-10+ years ago) and all my Mum learnt (french revolution, 17th century possibly?) quite a few years before that it wouldn't surprise me if schools were teaching some other random period and completely forgetting the 20th century now!
Also, I think different areas of the country teach different things. But a basic grounding of the last few thousand years at least would be a better system imho!
Justsomebloke
29-03-2008, 13:03
It hurts my head to think that some people don't know about the French revolution, storming of the Bastille, all the Louises', the Marque Desarde (sp?) The Legion de Estrange etc etc etc etc etc etc etc
Off for a cry now.
In fairness, it probably is the most important chunk to people alive these days. Not that it all isn't, of course... but to be honest I don't think I was ever even taught the moon landings... it's just something people know, surely?
I think this pretty much sums up my thoughts really. You can't get taught everything. You don't know everything. And you don't show an interest in everything. But surely, this is something that people just know, isn't it?
Flibster
29-03-2008, 17:57
Without wishing to sound offensive, the rest of your post seems to suggest her and her friends are, in fact, immensely thick, or at the very least frighteningly ignorant.
Then again, I'm sure there's a million things that she, as an educated type, would be shocked to find out I have no idea about.
Like.. maths :(
One of them is doing a Phd @ Cambridge in Chemisty at the moment. Another is doing Pure Maths I think.
I'm just shocked that one of the greatest scientific achievements of the 20th century - they didn't know happened....
Del Lardo
29-03-2008, 18:19
One of them is doing a Phd @ Cambridge in Chemisty at the moment. Another is doing Pure Maths I think.
I'm just shocked that one of the greatest scientific achievements of the 20th century - they didn't know happened....
That doesn't surprise me for a second. Cambridge is full of highly inteligent people who lack basic common sense and 'real world' experience.
Pumpkinstew
30-03-2008, 13:09
Decline in general knowledge in the British population.
15 to 1 no longer broadcast.
You can draw your own conclusions.
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