Why do people not know this.....

[Flyboy]

Having recently watched a few episodes of "Pointless," (a bit like Family Fortunes but in reverse) on BBC Two, I was surprise, nay astounded, that so many people don't the answers to some very obvious questions. Like, for example, only sixty eight people knew that Britain were combatants in the First World War, or that only four people knew that they were involved in the Napoleonic Wars. When asked about Shakespeare plays with names in the title, only fifty-four people could name Romeo and Juliet. Do people not read anymore, do they leave school and ignore the rest of the world around them?

[Gary L]

Was The Battle of Hastings and 1066 mentioned?

[Halcyon]

Well I personally don't know much about Britain in the wars as I wasnt much in to history at school. I preffered geography.

We only studied two Shakespeare books at school, "Romeo and Juliet" and "Macbeth".
So I can only name two. Wasn't there one called King Henry 4th or something?.

[Flyboy]

But surely you know that Britain was involved in both world wars, don't you?

[martyh]

I suppose it's all down to relevance .Is shakespeare relavent to people not working in a field that would require it .The same goes for a lot of subjects that have been removed from the curriculum to make way for new subjects like I.T

[Halcyon]

I knew they were involved in the 1st World War but not the Napoleanic war.

[Flyboy]

I can't see this being a school issue, to be honest. I appreciate that schools can't teach everything, but how can people go through life not hearing about the two world wars, or not hearing about Romeo and Juliet?

[martyh]

Originally Posted by Flyboy

I can't see this being a school issue, to be honest. I appreciate that schools can't teach everything, but how can people go through life not hearing about the two world wars, or not hearing about Romeo and Juliet?

It all depends on a persons lifestyle ,do they grow up in a surrounding that would bring them into contact with such subjects .I daresay that there are subjects some feel is strange that they know but others don't .Sometimes i feel that some questions asked on this forum are plain stupid and often think why don't people already know this ,but you have to sit back and realise that those peoples area of education is totally diffferent to mine

[Hugh]

I think part of the reason may be that reading for pleasure (both fiction and non-fiction) has taken second (or third) place to TV and the intraweeb; I like TV and the web, but love reading (I don't think there is any such thing as useless knowledge - the more we know about the world, the better we can understand it, and why things/people happen/behave as they do).

Reading was my escape mechanism as a child, and luckily the love of books has stayed with me, and my wife and I have passed this on to our children (they had DVDs and CDs for Christmas, but had also asked for a couple of books each) - if people aren't brought up that way, they will not (normally) have an extended view of the world beyond which they need for day to day life (imho).

[martyh]

Originally Posted by Hugh

I think part of the reason may be that reading for pleasure (both fiction and non-fiction) has taken second (or third) place to TV and the intraweeb; I like TV and the web, but love reading (I don't think there is any such thing as useless knowledge - the more we know about the world, the better we can understand it, and why things/people happen/behave as they do).

Reading was my escape mechanism as a child, and luckily the love of books has stayed with me, and my wife and I have passed this on to our children (they had DVDs and CDs for Christmas, but had also asked for a couple of books each) - if people aren't brought up that way, they will not (normally) have an extended view of the world beyond which they need for day to day life (imho).

I quite agree Hugh ,a good example is me and my wife .I grew up in a environment where education was pushed on us ,I always got books for Christmas/birthdays ,we used to watch plenty of documentaries on tv (only 3 channels then) so i have a greater general knowledge than my wife who wasn't encouraged in education and now there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth when i want to watch a program on the discovery channel

[Mr_love_monkey]

Originally Posted by Hugh

(I don't think there is any such thing as useless knowledge - the more we know about the world).

You've obviously never heard one of my interesting conversations then, full of little known facts

I think reading has a lot to do with it, but it's also personal interest - I like to think I have a good general knowledge of lots of areas, alot of which came about from devouring books from a very early age, but History & Geography (and sport for that matter) - hold no interest for me at all - and my knowledge there is severely lacking to the point where it's almost shameful.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by martyh

I suppose it's all down to relevance .Is shakespeare relavent to people not working in a field that would require it .The same goes for a lot of subjects that have been removed from the curriculum to make way for new subjects like I.T

This, I think, is the problem. Schools these days teach to a narrow curriculum with the aim of hitting a Government target. There is less time for broad study and encouraging pupils to be curious and self-motivated to go beyond what is necessary to pass the next test.

So long as we use our education system as a machine for turning out employable drones, we will live in a society where people are ignorant of anything beyond their own narrow specialism.

Shakespeare, incidentally, is extremely relevant to everyone, regardless of whether they 'require it' for their job. I could go on at great length to explain why but I don't want to drag things right off topic ...

[Mr_love_monkey]

Originally Posted by Chris

Shakespeare, incidentally, is extremely relevant to everyone, regardless of whether they 'require it' for their job. I could go on at great length to explain why but I don't want to drag things right off topic ...

Shakespeare? bah! - it's just full of cliches

[Angua]

Originally Posted by Chris

This, I think, is the problem. Schools these days teach to a narrow curriculum with the aim of hitting a Government target. There is less time for broad study and encouraging pupils to be curious and self-motivated to go beyond what is necessary to pass the next test.

So long as we use our education system as a machine for turning out employable drones, we will live in a society where people are ignorant of anything beyond their own narrow specialism.

Shakespeare, incidentally, is extremely relevant to everyone, regardless of whether they 'require it' for their job. I could go on at great length to explain why but I don't want to drag things right off topic ...

Perhaps Maggy can comment best, but there seems to be a lot of truth in this. Certainly judging by the recent complaints by universities that the current A levels are nearer in difficulty to the old O levels, simply based on the lack of depth of knowledge in any particular subject.

[Taf]

"General Knowledge" doesn't seem so general these days...none of the family next door knew that caterpillars turn into butterflies or moths, that "a half" was the same as "50%" or "0.5", or that cornflakes are made of corn!!!