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While at the Post Office today.......


Eamon Chute

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So I was at the local PO mailing a package. While waiting in line there was a glass case with several stamp sets on display. In front of me was a young couple about 26 or 27 years of age, behind me another young woman about the same age. The couple in front of me looks in the case and the following conversation ensued:

 

"Hey, is that a stamp of President Obama?" says the young man.

 

"Oh yeah, I think it is." The girl friend answers.

 

I take a look and tell them "No. That's Alan Shepard."

 

"Who the hell is that." says the boy friend.

 

"The first US astronaut." Says I.

 

"So he was the first guy to go into space then?"

 

"No, he was the first American in space. The first man in space was Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union."

 

"What the hell is the Soviet Union." He comes back with.

 

"You don't know what the Soviet Union is, or Yuri Gagarin, OR ALAN SHEPARD?!!!" I was shocked at this point. "WOW!" I said. I turned the rather professionally dressed young woman behind me and said "Can you believe that?" I was hoping she was better educated. I was disappointed.....

 

"I never heard of them either." She says.

 

"Didn't you learn about the space program in school? You know, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo? Landing on the moon?"

 

"Didn't that stuff just happen in the movies? It's not really real is it?" She says.

 

I sigh. Hang my head. And it hit me...............

 

We are doomed.....ohhhhh so doomed.

 

I just had to vent and knew that the only place possible was in the ACS.

 

 

EC :FlagAm:

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Now that's a scary thought, they vote!

Here's another earth shattering experience my Wife & I

encountered a couple of years ago...we were in Blockbusters

look for some entertainment and boy did we get some....

Picture this: a young person was on the cell talking to their

friend....this person is holding a DVD of TORA-TORA-TORA and

says: not much here but, I found one that might

be interesting "it's called tora-tora-tora, know anything about it?

OR THIS: a student in the fourth grade asked my Wife what time it was?

My Wife answered there was a clock above the door.So the young person

says "I can't tell time on the clock" :lol::wacko::blush::huh:

IT'S NOT DIGITAL! Honest

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If you want to have a little faith returned, I'll let you talk to my daughter. She has a pretty good grasp on history.

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You don't learn much history playing video games until your brain turns to goo and runs out your ears. Don't know what if anything they teach them in school nowdays. Probably how to play video games.

 

JHC

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or Yuri Gagarin

He was the guy who bent spoons with his mind, right? :ph34r:

 

There was a kid in my first NG unit, who didn't know the significance of the words "Hiroshima" and "Nagasaki". A lengthy discussion revealed that several others didn't know either. :unsure:

 

I was stationed in Atlanta with an E-5 who could rattle of every obscure statistic and bit of trivia about any football player who had ever lived, college or pro, but didn't know (or care about) the name of his governor, Senator, Representative, or state reps. He sneered at me for even asking. <_<

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Well, I don't know. A 27 yr. old was not alive in the 40s, 50's or 60's....so they didn't experience WWII or the Space Race...so for them to know about these things now (and to know a detail like Yuri Gagarin), they would have had to study it in school, or read about it. Knowing about Tora! Tora! Tora! means having either a fairly in depth knowledge of WWII or being around for the movie (in the late 60's or early 70's, I believe).

 

Try this. Your 27 yr. old subjects were asked questions about events that occurred 50-70 years ago. I was 27 in 1979. For an equivalent test, I need to consider what I knew in 1979 about events that occurred around 1920. I'm not sure that I could have named the President and Vice President as of that date; or named any major battles of WWI; or recognized the face of Orville Wright on a stamp. Unless you develop a particular interest in a historical period and study it on your own, you won't recall that much detail about events that occurred before you were born. As far as such things being taught in school - well, some is and some isn't. Schools need to compress whole centuries into a few hours of instruction, and they make the choice to cut out a lot of detail in order to give kids a basic feel for the big picture.

 

Let's face it; we're all getting older, and the young pups have no idea what we are talking about when we mention Tang, Walter Cronkite, Saturn boosters, Sputnik, or Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. Maybe it's nature's way of flushing out the detritus to make room for THEIR relevent memories.

 

LL

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Now that's a scary thought, they vote!

Here's another earth shattering experience my Wife & I

encountered a couple of years ago...we were in Blockbusters

look for some entertainment and boy did we get some....,

Picture this: a young person was on the cell talking to their

friend....this person is holding a DVD of TORA-TORA-TORA and

says: not much here but, I found one that might

be interesting "it's called tora-tora-tora, know anything about it?

OR THIS: a student in the fourth grade asked my Wife what time it was?

My Wife answered there was a clock above the door.So the young person

says "I can't tell time on the clock" :lol::wacko::blush::huh:

IT'S NOT DIGITAL! Honest

On Tora, Tora, Tora, had a similiar experience years ago at Best Buy. They had it in the Japanese animated section,(I guess these Japanes animated are popular with kids, since they had almost a whole aisle devoted to them). Anyway, therse 2 kids, around 16-17 had a Best Buy employee there and asking what kind of animation Tora, Tora,Tora was. The Best Buy employee, glad he knew, told them it was the story of the surpise invasion of Hawaiian islands by the Japanese. They asked if the story was maybe a Sci-Fi, or just fiction. Unbeliavable. I actually stayed to listen to the whole conversation, because it was so unbeliavable. MT

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Well, I don't know. A 27 yr. old was not alive in the 40s, 50's or 60's....so they didn't experience WWII or the Space Race...so for them to know about these things now (and to know a detail like Yuri Gagarin), they would have had to study it in school, or read about it. Knowing about Tora! Tora! Tora! means having either a fairly in depth knowledge of WWII or being around for the movie (in the late 60's or early 70's, I believe).

 

Try this. Your 27 yr. old subjects were asked questions about events that occurred 50-70 years ago. I was 27 in 1979. For an equivalent test, I need to consider what I knew in 1979 about events that occurred around 1920. I'm not sure that I could have named the President and Vice President as of that date; or named any major battles of WWI; or recognized the face of Orville Wright on a stamp. Unless you develop a particular interest in a historical period and study it on your own, you won't recall that much detail about events that occurred before you were born. As far as such things being taught in school - well, some is and some isn't. Schools need to compress whole centuries into a few hours of instruction, and they make the choice to cut out a lot of detail in order to give kids a basic feel for the big picture.

 

Let's face it; we're all getting older, and the young pups have no idea what we are talking about when we mention Tang, Walter Cronkite, Saturn boosters, Sputnik, or Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. Maybe it's nature's way of flushing out the detritus to make room for THEIR relevent memories.

 

LL

 

Probably not the best defensive argument on a forum where a majority of us know minute historical details of clothing, weapons, and culture of 140 years ago! :D

 

BSD

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If you saw what parents are sending to school you would be more sympathic to teachers.

 

My kids...and I'm guessing most of your kids.... knew their name, address, phone number, parents names, colors, numbers, shapes, basic hygiene, and manners BEFORE they were sent to school.

I was shocked how many kids don't know ANY of that when they get to 1st grade. Who's fault is that?

 

If a child has the basic "life skills" taught to them at home THEN they can be taught history, math, etc. You can't teach a child who doesn't recognize their own name on a list of students' names to care anything about history. Unfortunately many are left to play video games instead of being taught "basics"

 

I completely agree that there are some teachers that have no business in a classroom but there are also many very dedicated teachers who truly love children and want to help them.

Teachers are TOLD what they have to teach... by people who have no idea what it's like in a classroom now.

Most teachers are doing the best they can with what they have been given.

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Eamon:

 

I'd be willing to bet money they all knew who the final contestants are on American Idle.

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The level of ingnorance in our society is dusgusting,..... :wacko:

And disgusting too. :lol::P

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Eamon:

 

I'd be willing to bet money they all knew who the final contestants are on American Idle.

 

 

That was unintentionally brilliant! :D

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I am a newspaper photographer. Sixty two years old. A few years ago, another photog (my age) and I made up a twenty question "pop quiz" for the reporters in the newsroom, most of whom were freshly minted college grads. Who is the governor of NC; the VP of the US; Gorbachev; etc. The results started my hair on it's journey to grey. It is a shame that people do not seem to have any desire to read AND ADD TO THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD AROUND THEM.

See you down the trail......

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Well, I ran a number of the questions by my eldest daughter.

 

She knew who Yuri Gagarin was, gave me a dirty look when I asked about the Soviet Union.

 

She couldn't place Alan Shepherd, but does know what Sputnik was, the significance of John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

 

She knew the Apollo Program, but couldn't think of Gemini or Mercury off the top of her head. She does know what Friendship 7 was though.

 

She knows Tora-Tora-Tora is a movie, and that it had to do with the attack on Pearl Harbor, but wasn't quite sure beyond that.

 

She corrected my pronunciation of Hiroshima, and also knows Nagasaki (it helps that she has seen Bock's Car half a dozen times).

 

She is, however, much smarter than I am. I just have a greater wealth of knowledge, for the moment...

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She corrected my pronunciation of Hiroshima

 

I am guessing you pronounce it like "Hero sheema" which is the way I have pronounced it all my life, even though I learned as a small child to put the accent on the second syllable. I also say "crick" instead of "creek" and "foilage" instead of "foliage". I always roll my eyes at people who rant about Bush being ignorant or stupid because of the way he pronounces "nuclear". There is a big difference between proper English and any of the various dialects and accents across the continent.

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Please, don't get me going on this. Years ago, when my kids were in high school, I was talking to them about John Paul Jones, Nathan Hale, Patrick Henry, the Continental Congress, etc. They'd never heard of that stuff. But they could tell me who Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinham, and Malcom X were. :wacko:

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Pards, they don't teach American History is school anymore. It's part of a planned dumbing down of America. How do you think Obama and his sidekick got elected? It all started soon after LBJ formed the department of Education and started mandating what public schools could and could not teach.

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Pards, they don't teach American History is school anymore. It's part of a planned dumbing down of America. How do you think Obama and his sidekick got elected? It all started soon after LBJ formed the department of Education and started mandating what public schools could and could not teach.

 

 

Yep, they don't teach history any more...

 

It was Jimmy Carter that signed the Department of Education into being. Somehow we landed men on the moon without the help of the Dept. of Ed.

 

For fun sometime, ask anyone why Alexander Hamilton is on the $10 bill.

 

...."who???"...

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We should not blame the teachers in any event, They are teaching the garbage that the dumbocraps rewrote.

US History where mlk means more than Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, etc.

 

Wood shop has been replaced with playing video games. No practical skills; cannot tell time, saw to a line.

 

I wonder how many kids today know how many states there are? Current POTUS doesn't!

 

I wonder how many citizens of USA can name all states and then name all US presidents or at least a good number.

 

how many US presidents are still alive?

 

name the major wars that the USA participated in.

 

 

I bet many current students would fail.

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We should not blame the teachers in any event, They are teaching the garbage that the dumbocraps rewrote.

US History where mlk means more than Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, etc.

 

Wood shop has been replaced with playing video games. No practical skills; cannot tell time, saw to a line.

 

I wonder how many kids today know how many states there are? Current POTUS doesn't!

 

I wonder how many citizens of USA can name all states and then name all US presidents or at least a good number.

 

how many US presidents are still alive?

 

name the major wars that the USA participated in.

 

 

I bet many current students would fail.

 

True, but most of them have reached the rank of Elf Lord and are officially certified combatants with the Commando-550 Laser Saber in the latest edition of Mega Worlds. :wacko:

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Yep, they don't teach history any more...

 

It was Jimmy Carter that signed the Department of Education into being. Somehow we landed men on the moon without the help of the Dept. of Ed.

 

For fun sometime, ask anyone why Alexander Hamilton is on the $10 bill.

 

...."who???"...

 

Secretary of the Treasure

That's why the U.S. Treasury is on the back of the $10 bill.

I even know who Aaron Burr was and what he did. 3rd. V.P.

 

Jake

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Secretary of the Treasure

That's why the U.S. Treasury is on the back of the $10 bill.

I even know who Aaron Burr was and what he did. 3rd. V.P.

 

Jake

 

 

Not completely.... He was the FIRST Secretary of the Treasury

 

He is also listed as a founding father.

 

And for what it is worth he was also a bastard.

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And yet some young people will surprise you. Strange, it's true. I wonder what Sergey Korolyov, Vladimir Komarov, Andrei Sakharov, or Igor Kurchatov would have said? Probably something like Век живи́ — век учи́сь. ;)

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For those that read the wall Street Journal, the editorials are available on line, and they have comments from subscribers and anyone else who registers (free). Last week Brett Stephens wrote an intentionally inflammatory OpEd about the lack of education and knowledge in our college graduates, focused on the lack of what they were taught.

 

One of his three main points regarded the lack of facts or history they are taught, in the name of "critical thinking". His point was, if you know no facts, you cannot connect the dots to create a pattern to allow critical thinking to germinate.

 

There were several comments about how knowing anything today is a waste of time "since you can simply google it in seconds". No thought to the fact that you cannot google what you do not already know in the "pattern" - that is the beauty of knowledge and history, nor the fact that much of what you can google is false.

 

On the other hand, we hire some pretty sharp, knowledgeable graduates where I work, and they do not fit this mold. The bad news is, they are the minority of our graduates these days. :ph34r:

 

What ever happened to the pursuit of knowledge?

 

Harvey

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Not completely.... He was the FIRST Secretary of the Treasury

 

He is also listed as a founding father.

 

And for what it is worth he was also a bastard.

 

In the duel with Aaron Burr, Hamilton used his Family Dueling Pistols. If he had known something about the history of them, he might have had a better chance of shooting Aaron Burr. Hamilton was shot July 11th,1804 and died the next day. The guns have been in a museum, and were cleaned around 1974. They were found to have a single SET trigger, which no one knew about on the day of the duel.

By cocking the pistol first, then pushing the trigger forward it SETS the hair trigger. Had Hamilton known this, he might have used it to his advantage against Burr. Just sayin'

 

Jake

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