Twitter Backlash for People Who Did Not Know ‘Titanic’ Was Real

news.yahoo.com ^ | April 13, 2012 | Melissa Knowles

[grundle]

The social news-sharing site Reddit has a knack for exposing people and situations. The latest topic of discussion to generate controversy is a series of tweets from people who did not know that the sinking of the Titanic was a real historical event.

Apparently, an entire generation of people associate "Titanic" with the Hollywood blockbuster starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Here is the disambiguation for you. The RMS Titanic sank April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg. The tragedy is considered one of the deadliest of peacetime maritime disasters. More than 1,500 people died.

"Titanic" the film was released December 19, 1997, and was an instant success. It became the highest-grossing film of all time for 12 years, until "Avatar" debuted in 2009.

For all the history buffs reading this, the next couple of sentences may be too painful to contemplate. A couple of the tweets from the uninformed read, "Nobody told me titanic was real? How am I just finding this out?" Another tweet read, "Guys, the Titanic was real! #mindblown."

Most people aware of the existence of the RMS Titanic are in disbelief. One such person tweeted, "The ignorance is astounding." Another person said he was "weeping for the future" at finding out that so many young people are unfamiliar with such a well-known fact.

[tanknetter]

What upset me the most, wasn't that she didn't know the word, but that she was so intellectually un-curious that she couldn't even be bothered to look it up.

At the end of 7th grade my family moved to a new town. The second or third day there I was trying to figure out the spelling of a word during English, and asked the teacher where the dictionaries were. He instantly made me the most-hated kid in the class by loudly pointing out that the new kid had actually asked for the dictionary on his third day, while none of the other kids had bothered to ask for it the entire year.

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What upset me the most, wasn't that she didn't know the word, but that she was so intellectually un-curious that she couldn't even be bothered to look it up.

This is the fatal flaw. There is very little curiosity. When children are very young, say five or six years old, they want to learn everything and they want to know how everything works. At the end of their twelve years of public education, they want to know nothing. It never occurs to them to look something up. We graduate wonderful consumers, people who know how to covet, and people who have no problems obtaining life-long debts. We do not graduate learners. An interesting read is The Dumbest Generation. I'd also recommend Weapons of Mass Instruction. Both are eye-opening.

[Arrowhead1952]

History and geography are no longer taught in the public school system.

So true. There are generations that don't have a clue due to teh indoctrination going on in publick sckrules.

[Solson]

Libra?

[Sirius Lee]

Homeschool. Quickly, before it’s too late.

[Reily]

When my daughter was in elementary school her 6th grade teacher thought Saint Patrick's contribution to the world was he brought the potato to Ireland. My daughter who know better came to me and said, ‘Dad you know what stupid thing Mrs So-n-Son said to day?’. It was a year of “huh” coming out of that lady's mouth, but that's the one I remember best.

[dfwgator]

The movie “Idiocracy” pretty much nailed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DueSvcjn810

[dfwgator]

The best thing I ever did as a kid to learn history was being a Stamp Collector, especially foreign stamps, if I saw something on a Stamp, I wanted to know everything about it.

[exit82]

The best thing I ever did as a kid to learn history was being a Stamp Collector, especially foreign stamps, if I saw something on a Stamp, I wanted to know everything about it.

I heartily agree. I collected stamps as a kid, and learned so much geography and history. A country's stamps portray its history and famous people and events. A great hobby for any kid.

[Reily]

for me as a kid it was coin collecting and Avalon Hill War games and I just plain liked to read!

[AnTiw1]

“Jutland” was my intro to AH in the 70’s. Fond memories.

[bt_dooftlook]

This may be a minor quibble, but IMHO, teachers are not there to teach; they are there to help you learn.

To my mind, it is not that the younger generation is not taught, it is that the teachers, to a large extent, fail to inspire a love of learning.

While the end result is the same, I think the responsibility for learning always is on the student, who, after all, must live with the consequences...

[llandres]

Bfl

[llandres]

Bfl

[WinOne4TheGipper]

I doubt that it’d do much good for these twits. You need to look up the twitter profiles of these young skulls full of mush. One is obsessed with Zach Effron. Another is so embarrassed that she was made fun of on tosh.0.

[Vince Ferrer]

Oh my God! This means Leonardo DiCaprio is dead!

[SparkyBass]

“The RMS Titanic sank April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg.”

What? I thought it hit Guam and temporarily tipped it over...

[DB]

One does.

[Right Wing Assault]

You 1!

[Vince Ferrer]

If anyone wants to be really scared, start asking high school kids what brought down the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.