British Children are idiots!

[~Ray]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...30/ndday30.xml




D-Day 1899 and President Denzel Washington is leading liberation of New Zealand from the Nazi's
By Chris Hasting and Julie Henry
(Filed: 30/05/2004)


It is 1899 and Denzel Washington, the American president, orders Anne Frank and her troops to storm the beaches of Nazi-occupied New Zealand.

This may not be how you remember D-Day but for a worrying number of Britain's children this is the confused scenario they associate with the events of June 6, 1944.


Pupils knew more about Saving Private Ryan than they did about the real events of the D-Day landings

A survey of 1,309 pupils aged between 10 and 14 and from 24 different schools found alarming levels of ignorance about the invasion of Normandy 60 years ago.

Only 28 per cent of primary and secondary pupils who sat the quiz last week were able to say that D-Day, involving the largest invasion force ever mounted, was the start of the Allied liberation of occupied western Europe.

Many of them could only say that it was something to do with the Second World War - though 26 per cent were flummoxed by even that fact. Some thought it took place in the First World War, or was the day war broke out, the Blitz and even Remembrance Sunday.

"It's a day when everyone remembers the dead who fought," said a 14-year-old girl at a north Devon secondary school. Only 16 per cent of 918 participating primary school children had the answer right.

One 10-year-old in a Northamptonshire school thought it was the day the "Americans came to rescue the English". Another thought D-Day involved "the invasion of Portsmouth". Various dates for the assault were 1066, 1776, 1899 and 1948.

Children also had great difficulty in naming Britain's war-time prime minister. Less than half of the overall sample and only 39 per cent of primary school children correctly identified him as Winston Churchill; a significant number opted for Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair.

Seventeen per cent of the sample and only 38 per cent of secondary school children identified Franklin D Roosevelt as the then President of the United States. Other candidates offered by both age groups were Denzel Washington (the Oscar-winning actor), George Washington, John F Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and George W Bush. Some said simply: "George Bush's dad."

Ignorance about the Allied leaders, however, contrasted sharply with knowledge about Adolf Hitler. Overall, 71 per cent of the sample and 64 per cent of primary school children were able correctly to name the Nazi leader. Only one in three could identify the broad location of D-Day, with a number saying that it happened in New Zealand, Skegness or Germany.

Thirteen per cent could name two of the beaches involved, and only 10 per cent of the sample knew that Dwight D Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander. Others thought that the invasion was led by Anne Frank, Private Ryan (the eponymous hero of the Steven Spielberg D-Day epic), or Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Eisenhower's deputy.

The disclosure that school children know so little about D-Day comes a week before the country prepares to celebrate the anniversary and will again focus attention on what sort of history is being taught in schools.

Even in those schools where the Second World War is taught, the emphasis is not necessarily on military events or even wartime leaders. One primary school teacher said: "We do study the Second World War but we do not tend to concentrate on particular military events or leaders. We look at issues that are relevant to children themselves. They learn about evacuation for instance, or the issuing of gas masks."

Dr David Starkey, the historian and television broadcaster, said yesterday that the survey had uncovered what he called a climate of "unfortunately reduced horizons and expectations".

It was "absurd", he said, that children were spending so much time discussing Hitler and Stalin to the detriment of everything else connected with the war.

"There is nothing difficult about the concepts being discussed and no reason why a child of primary school age should not be able to understand."

He said that he did not want to go back to a situation where history teaching was nothing but dates and battles, but he said he feared that the pendulum had swung too far in the other direction.

"I think that trying to begin any subject by relating to a child's own experience is a useful tool. But education is about teaching children things they do not know."

Chris Grayling, the shadow education minister, said: "These are really very recent events that have shaped the lives of all of us.

"It is a real worry that so few children seem to know the basics of what happened during the Second World War. We must not allow this to continue."

There were some exceptions to the general ignorance. One teacher at Great Addington Church of England Primary school in Northamptonshire was amazed to find that one of his pupils had scored 100 per cent in the test.

He said: "I asked him how he knew material which we had not covered in school. He told me he had picked it up from a D-Day game he played on his computer."


fark.com

[jaYMan]

I lived in the UK for 6 months, and the school I put my son in was amazing.

They had the kids sitting at desks with structured lessons at the age of 3. My son learned more in the UK in that short amount of time than he ever has here in public US schools.

[cali_22]

[~Ray]

Originally posted by jaYMan
I lived in the UK for 6 months, and the school I put my son in was amazing.

They had the kids sitting at desks with structured lessons at the age of 3. My son learned more in the UK in that short amount of time than he ever has here in public US schools.

US public schools are garbage... I agree.

[Sarah_Jayne]

well they have heard of New Zealand..that is one step about US schools.

[~Ray]

Originally posted by sarah_webinc
well they have heard of New Zealand..that is one step about US schools.

one step about US schools?

[TheFrog]

Originally posted by AdvertisingSex
one step about US schools?

ahead

[chemicaleyes]

A survey of 1,309 pupils aged between 10 and 14 and from 24 different schools warrants a thread title " British Children are idiots! " LOL

[chemicaleyes]

Originally posted by AdvertisingSex
one step about US schools?

it's called a typo, not really hard to work out now is it

[~Ray]

Before the gloves come off... US public schools are totally fucked up. I'm sure the British have more structured schools.

Big shock that US schools suck...huh?

[jpwhits]

Wow 1,309 pupils really shows realistic results that can be used to generalise all British Children - Good Job

[Sarah_Jayne]

Originally posted by AdvertisingSex
one step about US schools?

yeah I meant above and I was doing various things at the time. However, I am a product of US schools so if I wanted to pretend it was more than a typo I could just use myself as case in point

[~Ray]

Originally posted by sarah_webinc
yeah I meant above and I was doing various things at the time. However, I am a product of US schools so if I wanted to pretend it was more than a typo I could just use myself as case in point

You're not the only one... my high school had no windows.

Neither did EscortBiz's.

[Sarah_Jayne]

Originally posted by AdvertisingSex
You're not the only one... my high school had no windows.

Neither did EscortBiz's.

lol..well actually my middle school didn't have any windows that opened. We never did get anyone to give us a reason why. It just had little glass blocks that reminded me a bit of arrow slots in old forts.

[smokingdawn]

Originally posted by jaYMan
I lived in the UK for 6 months, and the school I put my son in was amazing.

They had the kids sitting at desks with structured lessons at the age of 3. My son learned more in the UK in that short amount of time than he ever has here in public US schools.

I grew up in England..I agree

[OzMan]

I also don't see how a lack of knowledge on WW2 history qualifies them as being idiots.

How much time do 10-14 year olds spend learning this?

A much bigger sample and testing in subjects like Math and Science would have been more appropriate.

While the gloves are off, the natural implication the thread title gives is that US children are not idiots.

Generally speaking, having completed high school in a developed foreign country is equivalent to having completed the first two years of college in the US.

[~Ray]

Originally posted by OzMan
I also don't see how a lack of knowledge on WW2 history qualifies them as being idiots.

How much time do 10-14 year olds spend learning this?

A much bigger sample and testing in subjects like Math and Science would have been more appropriate.

While the gloves are off, the natural implication the thread title gives is that US children are not idiots.

Generally speaking, having completed high school in a developed foreign country is equivalent to having completed the first two years of college in the US.

I agree. US educational system needs serious overhauling.

[~Ray]

Originally posted by sarah_webinc
lol..well actually my middle school didn't have any windows that opened. We never did get anyone to give us a reason why. It just had little glass blocks that reminded me a bit of arrow slots in old forts.

They told us it was because if there were windows, students would stare out them and not pay attention.

also, no facial hair, shirts had to have collars, no shorts, no sandals, no rock T-shirts, no hair below the collar, paddlings, ..etc...

and this is a public high school in TX.

[Sarah_Jayne]

actually, on a serious note. I have two step daughters and one is just out of what Americans would call high school. These kids in this survey are between 10 and 14 but in the years after that almost ALL they learn in history class at the moment is WW2 stuff. Which is understandable as it is a major part of British history and is still reflected in the country today in many ways. So, WW2 history is not their downfall. What I did find frustrating with my step daughter (who is now a history major btw) was the lack of teaching of anything OTHER than WW2. I suppose a lot of that is due to the exam structure which is forcing massivly focused study of certain subject matter.

I mean, one of my partners can still qoute nearly everything about Hamlet because he spent nearly a year studying it for an exam and he is 32.

The history side, atleast represented in my step daughter's schooling is the same in that she can tell you just about anything about ww2 but don't ask her about the English civil war.

[EviLGuY]

Kids are stupid all over these days. I think they need to re-institure corporal punishment.

[txtbill]

AdvertisingSex it is you that is the idiot, to make such a wide assumption about the Brits, you need to go back to school and learn something about us before spouting bullshit.

I also add that you are a bigger idiot for believing a story published in that blatantly right wing paper, shame on you!

[~Ray]

Originally posted by txtbill
AdvertisingSex it is you that is the idiot, to make such a wide assumption about the Brits, you need to go back to school and learn something about us before spouting bullshit.

I also add that you are a bigger idiot for believing a story published in that blatantly right wing paper, shame on you!

go drink some tea and swap out that corn cob that you have crammed up your ass... or should I say "arse".

[txtbill]

Originally posted by AdvertisingSex
go drink some tea and swap out that corn cob that you have crammed up your ass... or should I say "arse".

oooo witty, I think not!

Can't you do better than that?!

[~Ray]

Originally posted by txtbill
oooo witty, I think not!

Can't you do better than that?!

Nope, that's the best I got. What do you expect from an idiot?

[txtbill]

haha bravo there is a brain in there, less of the brit bashing dude and we will get on fine.

[Jill_J]

old news

[reynold]

Yup, another drama in the making!

[JulianSosa]

Originally posted by AdvertisingSex
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...30/ndday30.xml




D-Day 1899 and President Denzel Washington is leading liberation of New Zealand from the Nazi's
By Chris Hasting and Julie Henry
(Filed: 30/05/2004)


It is 1899 and Denzel Washington, the American president, orders Anne Frank and her troops to storm the beaches of Nazi-occupied New Zealand.

This may not be how you remember D-Day but for a worrying number of Britain's children this is the confused scenario they associate with the events of June 6, 1944.


Pupils knew more about Saving Private Ryan than they did about the real events of the D-Day landings

A survey of 1,309 pupils aged between 10 and 14 and from 24 different schools found alarming levels of ignorance about the invasion of Normandy 60 years ago.

Only 28 per cent of primary and secondary pupils who sat the quiz last week were able to say that D-Day, involving the largest invasion force ever mounted, was the start of the Allied liberation of occupied western Europe.

Many of them could only say that it was something to do with the Second World War - though 26 per cent were flummoxed by even that fact. Some thought it took place in the First World War, or was the day war broke out, the Blitz and even Remembrance Sunday.

"It's a day when everyone remembers the dead who fought," said a 14-year-old girl at a north Devon secondary school. Only 16 per cent of 918 participating primary school children had the answer right.

One 10-year-old in a Northamptonshire school thought it was the day the "Americans came to rescue the English". Another thought D-Day involved "the invasion of Portsmouth". Various dates for the assault were 1066, 1776, 1899 and 1948.

Children also had great difficulty in naming Britain's war-time prime minister. Less than half of the overall sample and only 39 per cent of primary school children correctly identified him as Winston Churchill; a significant number opted for Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair.

Seventeen per cent of the sample and only 38 per cent of secondary school children identified Franklin D Roosevelt as the then President of the United States. Other candidates offered by both age groups were Denzel Washington (the Oscar-winning actor), George Washington, John F Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and George W Bush. Some said simply: "George Bush's dad."

Ignorance about the Allied leaders, however, contrasted sharply with knowledge about Adolf Hitler. Overall, 71 per cent of the sample and 64 per cent of primary school children were able correctly to name the Nazi leader. Only one in three could identify the broad location of D-Day, with a number saying that it happened in New Zealand, Skegness or Germany.

Thirteen per cent could name two of the beaches involved, and only 10 per cent of the sample knew that Dwight D Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander. Others thought that the invasion was led by Anne Frank, Private Ryan (the eponymous hero of the Steven Spielberg D-Day epic), or Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Eisenhower's deputy.

The disclosure that school children know so little about D-Day comes a week before the country prepares to celebrate the anniversary and will again focus attention on what sort of history is being taught in schools.

Even in those schools where the Second World War is taught, the emphasis is not necessarily on military events or even wartime leaders. One primary school teacher said: "We do study the Second World War but we do not tend to concentrate on particular military events or leaders. We look at issues that are relevant to children themselves. They learn about evacuation for instance, or the issuing of gas masks."

Dr David Starkey, the historian and television broadcaster, said yesterday that the survey had uncovered what he called a climate of "unfortunately reduced horizons and expectations".

It was "absurd", he said, that children were spending so much time discussing Hitler and Stalin to the detriment of everything else connected with the war.

"There is nothing difficult about the concepts being discussed and no reason why a child of primary school age should not be able to understand."

He said that he did not want to go back to a situation where history teaching was nothing but dates and battles, but he said he feared that the pendulum had swung too far in the other direction.

"I think that trying to begin any subject by relating to a child's own experience is a useful tool. But education is about teaching children things they do not know."

Chris Grayling, the shadow education minister, said: "These are really very recent events that have shaped the lives of all of us.

"It is a real worry that so few children seem to know the basics of what happened during the Second World War. We must not allow this to continue."

There were some exceptions to the general ignorance. One teacher at Great Addington Church of England Primary school in Northamptonshire was amazed to find that one of his pupils had scored 100 per cent in the test.

He said: "I asked him how he knew material which we had not covered in school. He told me he had picked it up from a D-Day game he played on his computer."


fark.com

did you get paid by tabloid cash?

[xxxbruce]

some uk schools are pretty wank i should know i was in one

[m00d]

what the fuck

teach your kids something people.

[Project-Shadow]

There are some good schools in the U.K and some completely shit ones. I'm sure the same could be said about the schools in the U.S... although what's up with all those mass killings 0.o?

I don't agree with putting children in school at 4-5 though -_-''

Oh yeah, and before you go bashing 'British Children', who can remember that poll about 60-80% of U.S children not being able to point out Iraq on the map... and wasn't it something like 20% that couldn't find the U.S?