SF kids ignorant of history
A Chronicle reporter quizzed 11th graders at San Francisco’s Burton High School over their knowledge of World War II; they flunked, despite the fact it was a multiple-choice test and, in every case, the correct answer was the longest one. (When I taught at Mission High in the 80s and made up multiple-choice tests, I noticed the same tendency: I would unconsciously make the correct answer the longest one. It’s interesting that the Chronicle reporter did the same thing.) Which raises the question: today’s high schoolers may be woefully ignorant about actual historical facts, but are they also so dumb they can’t notice that the person who wrote the test is telegraphing the correct answers?
I’m not surprised the kids don’t know anything about World War II. In my class I thought it would be cool to teach the kids about Joan of Arc because she was a teenager, right, and I thought they might be able to identify. Only problem: they didn’t know what France was.
According to Miss South Carolina, these kids need more maps. That’s the whole problem.
We need to stop accepting mediocrity in the public school system. Giving a 7th-grade student an “A” for a world-map project where they’ve labelled all of the Asian continent as “USSR” is not OK.
Kids are dumb. I mean, what? Is that news?
The fact is, most people in this world are dumb. I know it sucks, but it’s true, it’s been true, and it’ll always be true. It’s not as if previous generations of Americans were a hell of a lot smarter than this current bunch. I know folks in thier 50’s think they were great way back when, but, whatever dudes. You can count Bush as one of your number.
The sad fact is you don’t need too many smart kids. All of history has proven that societies work fine with a bunch of dumb shits, so long as there are enough smart ones to form companies to create labor to employ the dumb ones. Really. It’s true.
Now unfortunately, when you have a bunch of dumb asses, tons of shit can go wrong. The smart kids will manipulate the dumb kids. That’s why you should study hard or else you end up in Iraq, kiddies!
It sucks, but it’s not the end of the world. It’ll make for fun Jay-Walking in about 10 years.
It’s a generational shift. Few, if any, of today’s high-schoolers grew up with grandpa talking about the war. Once the living part of that kind of living history is removed, our society’s relationship with the subject matter is drastically altered.
Of course, the consequences of such can be quite troubling . . . doomed to repeat, etc, etc.