Nice to know that British schools do just as crappy a job of educating students that American schools do.

Our history teaching wasn't very good when I was a kid. I don't think we covered any 20th century stuff at all. It was mostly about the middle ages, and the time of the Tudors and Stewarts, as I remember.

Those kids are f*cking stupid.

Everyone knows Nazis didn't invade New Zealand until 1900.

DUH!

2004-06-02 12:29:58 PM zibby

It's "Nice to know that British schools do just as crappy a job of educating students as American schools do."

/sorry, couldn't resist :-)

Jesus, that's depressing. Not that American schools are in much better shape; you'd probably get the same results from our kids.

Still, the fact is that WWII, especially D-Day, is interesting as hell. It's a shame they're being taught about gas masks instead of the greatest millitary operation in history.

I am of the opinion that any WWII class, or any segment of a history class dealing with WWII, should involve sitting around and watching the history channel. WWII encompasses at least half of their programming, and it's fun to watch. Damn I love the history channel.

That's the silly thing about it. Recent history is (a) more relevant and (b) more interesting. It would seem to be the obvious thing to teach, but that doesn't seem to be the way it works.

In all fairness, I wasn't that interested in history as a kid. In fact, I remember too many of my history classes to be little more than time spent memorizing dates and events. So it doesn't surprise me that kids are sort of vegging out or not bothering to leran these things.

Now I find school kids' ignorance of history to be depressing but still somewhat understandable. Older and wiser (and without the pressure to try and memorize and regurgitate this knowledge), I love learning as much as possible about our past. Hell, my favourite channels tend to me the History channel and Discovery Civilization. And I'm almost always reading some historical book.

"Was over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!"

The only solution to not having crappy schools is to have incredibly hard and demanding schools, most of you which wouldnt have passed.

I for welcome these new surveys being done in England. Knock that smug little chip off their shoulders.

I mean, with teeth like that.. how smart could they be?

This reminds me of the time the Indians defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Little Bigfoot ...

And remember, according to Bush 41, Pearl Harbor happened on September 7, 1941.

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end,
we shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our Island,
whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender,
and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

W. Churchill

/the man was an AMAZING leader.

I mean, with teeth like that.. how smart could they be?

Coming from someone named poopmasterflex....classic.

Nineteen-dickity-two, it was.

British plot to prevent their children from learning that the US did most of the fighting...

and you people think BUSH is farked up?????

/bwahahahahahahahahahahaha

brilliant headline

As a history major probably going into teaching, this makes me want to throw things. Sharp, pointy things.

/European history is wicked cool, kids.

i remember covering both world wars very briefly in school, and i did a project on WW2 when I was ten and got some cool stuff from my granddad who was the only sailor injured on his ship during the invasion, when he fell down a ladder and broke his thumb

Perhaps they looked up history lessons on the internet and were distracted by all the stupid little popups like that annoying little diver ad. Close button never works fast enough.

Why are there always stories on Fark about how stupid the kids in the UK are? This is the third one, if I remember (another one said that kids thought the Battle of Endor was real).

Just on observation.

mryoop789:
What kind did you have?
Was it nice red one or one of them big ugly yellow ones?

>>ImJustaTroll
The only solution to not having crappy schools is to have incredibly hard and demanding schools, most of you which wouldnt have passed.<<

HuH? I wish I speaked good like you!

Perhaps you meant to say, "The only solution to not having crappy schools is to have incredibly hard and demanding schools, which most of you would have failed."

-Day, according to British schoolkids: The day in 1899 that President Denzel Washington ordered Anne Frank's troops to invade Nazi-controlled New Zealand

What the FARK have Bill and Ted been up to?!

Savian Coming from someone named poopmasterflex....classic.

Yes, because we know.. it's all in the name.

You chose your name after Savion Glover, the world famous tap dancing crack addict?


Much Better

Well shucks, and we thought them Brits was smart....

and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

W. Churchill

In other words, USA please save our sorry European asses from ourselves -- again.

Big deal, those old stories just make the Nazi's look bad anyway...

I've always been wary of these kinds of articles/tests, for a few reasons:

1) It ususally seems clear that the test are being given with the purpose of finding out how stupid people are. Thus, I have to wonder if the tests or researchers are biased from the start. Perhaps someone is looking for some funding? Hmm?

2) Rarely do you see the format of the tests. Are they open ended questions? Fill in the blank? Multiple choice? True/False? Essay? Do students incur a penalty for being wrong, or does everyone treat them as a waste of time?

3) Along with #2, it's never clear if "close" answers are accepted. For example, so long as 90% of people knew that WW2 ended somewhere between 1944 and 1946, I wouldn't be very worried if only 10% got the exact date correct.

4) The results often seem designed to titilate. The basic pattern is "we gave this these to 20,000 students, here are some funny answers that one or two clowns gave."

5) Too often the "knowledge" being tested is just rote memorization of dry facts that have little application to daily life. Personally, I'm not that concerned that 10 year old kids (from the article) don't know much about D-Day. How about older students? And I bet those stupid 1st grade kids don't know ANYTHING about WW2!

6) In this specific case, I blame the education system. I was always fairly interested in modern (WW2+) history, but the least time was spent on this. It usually came in the final few weeks of the school year as everyone was antsy to go home for the summer. I've always felt that history is taught in the wrong order -- the least time should be spent on the ancient history, and the most time should be spent on the most recent history.

"It's a day when everyone remembers the dead who fought..."

Killer Zombies?!?!

More correct:

...the day the "Americans came to rescue the English"

Well at least the kids in the Middle East are being drilled on historical accuracies in their "schools," so there is hope for humanity.

History is rock.

It's one big story. Except it's true so it's a hella better.

so here's to you history teachers I had in high school.

And to stir things up:

The war was over the moment Russia became an ally.
D-day just sped things up.

Dark Bastion Why are there always stories on Fark about how stupid the kids in the UK are? This is the third one, if I remember (another one said that kids thought the Battle of Endor was real).

Making fun of American school kids has become so.. passe.

Dark Bastion
Why are there always stories on Fark about how stupid the kids in the UK are? This is the third one, if I remember (another one said that kids thought the Battle of Endor was real).

Just on observation.

Only 3?! We have one article almost everyday showing stupid US kids.
you Brits are falling behind on moron school children, drink more paint and watch more "tellie"

Funny that the kid who scored 100 learned it all by playing Medal of Honor. Who'd ever believe that video games taught kids better than their teachers could?

Ha ha. Whose school system sucks the hardest now?

We're not the worst!
We're not the worst!
We're not the worst!
We're not the worst!
We're not the worst!...

/British bashing.

Spin_Doc

In all fairness, I wasn't that interested in history as a kid. In fact, I remember too many of my history classes to be little more than time spent memorizing dates and events.

All too true. I spend most of my free time reading history books, mainly WWII but also other stuff. What dawned on me is that in school we are taught just that; dates and events.

I'm under the impression we learn history to teach us what has happened, why the world look like it does today, and what people have done in the past so we can learn from them. Otherwise we'd still be sitting in caves.

They never tell us WHY the event was important enough to memorize. If you don't get the 'big picture', the date is irrelevant! This is where teachers should put their effort.

A brief example; when learning ancient history, every school book (at least ours) has the battle of Cannae with some nice graphs. Why is that important? IT ISN'T! Sure, Hannibal wacked the Romans using a smart tactic (which the Greeks used back at Marathon albeit that was unplanned), but the battle itself isn't worth remembering for a kid for ultimately it didn't achieve anything. Hannibal failed to grasp the opportunity to sack Rome immediately following the victory. So why learn kids such things? Interesting for military history buffs, yes. School kids? Nah.

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.
Everyone still knows Hitler. He's the most famous guy of the 20th century. What a bunch of crap.
/Off to watch the hitler ..err.. history channel

NitneLiun

It's only fair, seeing as they saved your ass in World War III.