Posted on 04/13/2012 9:56:24 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ive felt for a long time the final Presidential vote percentage is an accurate representation of the Idiot/Non-Idiot index, but it this it true the Idiots have made a major leap forward..
Few know how much of anything works anymore.
So technology has turned into essentially magic.
They can't differentiate between what is real and what is make believe. So they depend on “experts” to guide them as they are incapable of reasoning through issues themselves.
This is why people today are willing to believe nearly anything as long it fits into their larger world view and it comes from an "expert".
So in short, they've become sheep to be herded by their betters.
Not much hope for the future generation.
one over the square root of 2. ;-)
You gave it away!
While I’ll probably not be the smartest guy in every room I’ll ever walk into, I have to relate this story.
I graduated HS in 1983. In my 11th grade year, I missed the entire 3rd Q due to medical issues. I returned to class the day of quarterly exams. My History teacher argued with me about taking the test and wanted to send me to the library for the duration with a make up sometime later.
I refused and demanded to take the test with the caveat that pass/fail, that was the grade I’d get. Now bear in mind I sat desk to desk with the teacher so no cheating was possible.
I finished before the rest of the class and the teacher said ‘I told you you’d blow it”. I replied, “No I didn’t, I got at least a 90.”
While the rest of the class finished, she graded the test. She then called me outside and said “You got a 93. How the hell did that happen?”
The answer was that I was taught the very same material in 3rd grade by a Nun in Catholic school. And I remembered it because it was interesting to me.
Now for my point. In 1983 the educational system was teaching once 3rd grade material to 11th graders. In fact ALL of my high school English/History class material had been taught to me by G4 in Catholic school.
In 2012 I can only imagine seniors graduate by singing a partial rendition of the Barney theme song. And I am not kidding.
This afternoon somebody tweeted that Obama had never had to meet a payroll. A UC Berkeley alumnus shot back “doesn’t being a professor and a lawyer count?”
Michelle Malkin tweeted “Dear Lord. Clueless tweet of the day. This woman thinks meeting payroll means cashing a paycheck.”
I went thru the girl’s tweets and she admitted she had to look it up. She also admitted that her parents had owned their own business for years. You would think that knowledge would have seeped into a family conversation from time to time.
Some teen girls were at our kitchen table about a year ago.
The topic of our oldest daughter going to France came up.
One of the girls asked if France is in our country.
One wonders if the girl, her parents or the school district should be shot first.
Looks pretty bleak sometimes.
I do have to say that my granddaughter is a freshman in high school and is taking world history. She was fascinated by the Holocaust and how in the world something like that ever happened.
I don’t know what she knows about American history. Shame on me for never asking her. I’ll remedy that this weekend.
Again I say, a question such as this is cause not for lamentation but rejoicing. And never mind the parents and the school board. It's all up to her.
I would assume those “people” are twenty-something Obama fans.
“..but especially the first time..”
At the local grade school they had astronomy night with lots of telescopes for the kids (and parents!) to look through.
It was AMAZING to see Saturn, with my OWN eyes! Yep - not sure why - but it is one thing to see it on paper, another to see for yourself.
I don’t doubt this for a second. On a brighter side, I was volunteering at reading groups Thursday for my daughter’s first grade class. The second group I had was reading a book about the Statue of Liberty. We got off on a slight tangent talking about the date on her book: July 4th, 1776 and what that day means. The little boy on my right was telling me about King George and the Revolutionary War. It turns out they are currently studying our Founding, but it was nice to see he was really paying attention to what he had been taught. I think he probably already knew a little bit anyway. We went off on another tangent when I asked them what famous place other than the Statue of Liberty they would like to visit. The little boy on my right wrote “the great piramids of geesa [sic]”. He loves pyramids and Egypt. One day he came in wearing a pharaoh’s hat. He’s just too cute with his personality and the way he talks and expresses himself. The next boy wrote “a hotel” which was surprising because he seems like he might be kind of a smart little boy and I thought he would come up with something more specific. When I inquired a little further, he said it was one with a wishing well. The little Hispanic boy wrote: “The Great Wall of Chinea[sic]” which was impressive because that’s not a place you would think an average first grader would be interested in. The last little boy didn’t have time to write. He just told me Disneyland and that he had already been there. Unfortunately, we only get 20 minutes for each group to read and discuss. I wish I had more time with them because often I have to cut them off and some of them really have a lot to say.
I wish you were my neighbor. That would be fun. My kids would love it.
Big boat ping
As a kid, I would spent hours upon hours in our den reading through the World Book Encyclopedia.
My daughter (8th grade) gave a presentation on the Holocaust for History Day a few weeks ago. At the end several boys were asking questions like “How could one guy kill millions of people - that’s impossible”. “If he did that, someone would have stopped him”. “You can’t kill people just because they don’t have the same religion as you”.
She politely answered the questions, and afterwards I told her (it was a parent’s night thing) that she did a good job with those boys teasing her. She gave me a puzzled look.
“You know - with them asking stupid questions and stuff.”
“Um - dad - they were serious.”
“Huh?”
“They were serious, they didn’t know anything about the Holocaust.”
“Huh? Isn’t that what you’ve been studying and why you did the presentation on it?”
“No, we haven’t learned it in school. I did it because it was interesting.” (We had the Diary of Anne Frank in the house that she had read a couple years earlier)
Thanks for the pointer to this thread and here's an "all aboard" bell to those on the Titanic ping list.
And, everyone, here's one final reminder: Don't forget that A Night to Remember will be shown tonight at 10:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time) on TCM.
I highly recommend the movie "The Devil's Arithmetic" for your granddaughter. (The film is "Based on the popular novel by Jane Yolen, a typical American teenager gets transported back in time and experiences firsthand the horrors of the Holocaust and discovers the meaning of her family’s heritage.")
From Amazon.com:
Executive producers Dustin Hoffman and Mimi Rogers present the truth of the Holocaust so a new generation can understand why it must never be forgotten. Kirsten Dunst plays Hannah, a modern teen more concerned with trends than history. During the traditional Passover dinner, she zones out as her relatives harp about concentration camps. But then Hannah passes through a portal to the past, where she becomes her own ancestor in Poland during the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
Post of the day! And only 25 Minutes into the day at that....
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