Thread: General knowledge

You've reminded me of a similar thing when I was at school.

We had studied WW2 the previous sememster for history and had moved onto the Vietnam war. Anyway, we'd just finished watching the movie Platoon and the notorious dumb-blonde pipes up and asks "did Vietnam happen before or after the Hitler thingy". Far out...she'd learned not a single thing for the whole year!

Don’t blame the individuals, ( blonde or otherwise ) blame our education system.

History is of little significance in our modern education system and we are paying for it.

My daughter didn’t know what Hiroshima was all about, back in 1995, during the 50TH anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb.

“What’s an atomic bomb”, was one of her questions and she was in her last few years of high school at the time.

So not knowing about Nazis doesn’t surprise me.

Don't blame the education system. Blame society.

Today everyone seems to be expected to express some opinion about everything, hence all the online and telephone polls. However they seem to be expected to express that opinion without any knowledge about the topic.

How can schools be expected to cover every aspect of history as well as the three Rs when society now expects them to deal with sex education, driver education, risk assessment and all sorts of interpersonal skills that would once have been instilled through growing up in an extended family where three or even four generations had meaningful communication?

What is particularly awful about the original example about the Nazis is that not only is that young woman oblivious to significant historical events, but her ability to use and understand our language also suffers. "Nazi" has become a generic term for people with extreme right wing views as well as referring to a particular political party. So when she hears Ron and I being described as "spelling Nazis", she probably doesn't have a clue whether that is praise or (unjustified) criticism.

I bet she doesn't know what sort of a person a Quisling is either and I'm certain she would not know what sort of behaviour would cause someone to be described as doing a Garbo (as in Greta) or a Melba.

Some of those things are more than history. They are part of our language.

Whats a "Quisling" haha!!!!

Originally Posted by vnx205

So when she hears Ron and I being described as "spelling Nazis", she probably doesn't have a clue whether that is praise or (unjustified) criticism.

<snip>

Some of those things are more than history. They are part of our language.

That's why I hate the term "nazi" (note lower case) when used on the 'Net. I wonder if the users don't understand the utter offensiveness of the word.

Re the latter, I loved a comment by a friend who is/was an English teacher. It was about Shakespeare and he noted (very tongue in cheek) that Shakespeare wrote in cliches.

Do I need to explain - not to vnx205! - that many quotes from Shakespearean plays have entered our language as today's cliches?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, see The Shakespeare Book of Lists

What a magnificent use of the language - it beats ****** this and ****** that!

When asked by a 20yr old apprentice at work about the condition of a failed engine, i told him it was "chernobyled" and he had no idea. The conversation was followed with him sitting at a computer for 20 odd mins researching Chernobyl.

I'm only 29 and admittedly a bit of a history buff...but C'mon....what are the schools teaching?? We i was in high school we where taught american history and only learnt any Australian history because our teacher was a aussie history buff and couldnt stand the thought that we would learn more about America than our own country

Originally Posted by Lucus

... .. .. ... what are the schools teaching?? ..>.....>.

If that is a serious question, the answer can be found here.

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au...ry_710_syl.pdf

That is the current Yr 7-10 History syllabus for NSW, first published in 2003 and updated in 2006. For those who left school more than just a few years ago, Stage 4 is Years 7 and 8 and Stage 5 is Years 9 and 10.

You will notice that the focus is very much on Australian history and the impact of world events on Australians.

This will throw a spanner in the works

Perhaps it's not society or the education system. Perhaps it's the person being willing to learn

I knew about the Nazi's, the wars and the like when I was a wee tacker; because I asked questions. Asked questions to my parents, listened in class, asked questions to teachers and generally wanted to learn

You can't blame an education system if someone can't be bothered using it to their advantage