Is it really 'old fashioned' to teach basic knowledge, facts and figures?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....ll-TV-advert-dog.html

Today's school children may be brilliant when it comes to operating the latest electronic devices etc. but when it comes to all round general knowledge they sometimes tend to be lacking in many ways.

Are they not taught, or perhaps even their teachers are lacking in some way?

[andy-hughes]

No problem AOG - made me smile on a difficult (!) Friday afternoon, which is always a good thing.

Have a great weekend.

[pa___ul3]

now AOG, regarding cooking and baking, I wouldn't be surprised to see a massive rise in popularity again soon given the obvious health benefits and popularity of TV programmes on baking etc. My 21 year old girlfriend spent this morning baking me banoffee cupcakes! I make a better roast though!
I meant I think I'd have you on geography in the sense I'd bet I'd beat you in a geography quiz.. old school learnings vs new school!
I do feel guilty that the history thing is lost on me, I do like looking round stately homes and such, and Spanish history has grabbed me a bit more, but it's just something I've never really been too bothered about. I wouldn't blame my school teacher, and my mum's really into history so it's not home, it's just me!

[LazyGun]

Its a terrible article AoG.Its one ex teacher, with a political agenda, offering a lot of anecdotal, unquantified "evidence".

I think there is a tendency, amongst todays older generations, to believe that education has become "dumbed- down", and that the latest crop of teenagers are lacking in general knowledge - but I have seen little if any hard evidence in support of this, and remember that every single generation will have its share of those with no interest in academia or learning. My parents generation used to espouse such views about my generation.

For those who already think this way, the article will just reinforce their views. For us open minded and sceptical types, it is a reminder that rhetoric can often achieve much more than the actual facts. I think I will reserve judgement until I actually see some data.

[Kromovaracun]

I have to say, I'm usually quite skeptical when I hear a newspaper reporting that someone is saying such things about education standards. I'm just not sure how much room I should allow for deliberate or accidental misquoting (and this isn't a particular DM jibe - the British press seems to do it quite often). Personally, although I was privately educated so it doesn't mean much, AOG's description of what was covered topic-wise in education sounds very familiar to me (though we hardly had any Religious Education)...

My first response to the question was that I'd much rather children be equipped with the skills and means to find work/succeed and (most importantly) be happy in life rather than necessarily leave school with a vast amount of obligatory general knowledge (and certainly in the field of history, a fair chunk of what's deemed 'general knowledge' often turns out to be wrong anyway). But having read the thread I suppose that isn't really what you're saying.

Personally, I'm not really convinced that, say, one child not knowing who Churchill was is symptomatic of anything really toxic - it just indicates that there's a kid somewhere who's really really uninterested in history. Sad perhaps, but not really a crisis. I'd be far more worried if the systematic, peer-reviewed, carefully-handled research carried out into education was coming to the same conclusions as this article. I don't know a great deal about that, unfortunately, which kind of bars me from saying much more on the topic, but as far as I'm aware it isn't coming to the same conclusions by a long stretch.

[jno]

Churchill's been dead more than 50 years. That would be approximately the same as expecting me, when I was 10ish, to know who Campbell-Bannerman was.

I don't even know who he was now.

[erin-x]

When it comes to playing games and quizzes with my friends, they all think that i'm very intelligent because I always beat them. This is only because I am one of those weird people who absorbs facts and figures. Ask me anything in depth about my advanced higher biology or most subjects and I would be stumped. From my experience anyway, most of the things that you get taught at school are useless when it comes to when you go out into the real world, hence why it has disappeared out of my mind. That does sound bad but it is true.

In saying this.. I do despair with some of my friends with the things that they come out with. One of them asked if Wales was in the UK the other day! Me and my mate then tried to trick him with "You do know Norway is part of the UK as well, don't you?" He actually believed us :| that IS sad.

[anotheoldgit]

A very good quiz programme is ITV's 'Chase'

http://www.itv.com/it.../video/?Filter=276488

The contestants are generally of all ages and are employed in a variety of jobs.

What is rather surprising at times, is that some of them, who judging by their professions should be very well educated, know very little when it comes to general knowledge.

[Kromovaracun]

"Churchill's been dead more than 50 years. That would be approximately the same as expecting me, when I was 10ish, to know who Campbell-Bannerman was. "

No, I don't think this really follows. Churchill (whatever your opinion of him) is probably the most iconic PM in the C20 - if not ever. I think it's pretty hard to deny that his image in itself is an important aspect of modern British culture. Campell-Bannerman is important in some ways for the history of British Liberalism/New Liberalism, but has nowhere near the level of cultural importance.