Posts: 1397
From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003

posted 09-28-2017 02:34 AM               

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Australian edition of "The Chase" television quiz show on now:

Question: How many astronauts could fly on the Soyuz TMA spacecraft?

Answer she gave? 5000.

Unbelievable.

Posts: 2031
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003

Posts: 2176
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999

Posts: 3118
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 09-28-2017 09:33 AM            

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While I don't want to digress too far into misty-eyed memories of a bygone era, it is certainly true that in my school-days we (mostly) respected the teachers (who didn't try to be our friends) and (to a greater or lesser extent) we feared their wrath if we didn't work hard in class and bring in good homework. Stepping out of line could certainly earn you a clip round the ear!

The point is that, through application of both carrot and stick, we got a rounded education and learned about important events in history as well as how the world worked. Looking back, I can remember changes in the approach to teaching starting to come in by the early 1970s, but I'll leave it to others to determine whether those changes had any bearing on the examples of ignorance noted above.

Posts: 2454
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009

posted 09-30-2017 08:52 AM               

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Once again Geoffrey, you are correct. As a battle-hardened veteran, I can vouch that it was in the seventies that education began to lose its way.

There are many reasons but the key one is that the system fell (and is still falling) foul of the "whizz-kids" whose view is that they know best on how to bring up children. In doing so they have made the mistake of forgetting that the basis of a sound education lies in the home — not at school.