pt cru Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 Watched about 10mins of 'The Aprentice' the other night and was quite appalled and a bit depressed actually to witness the conversation between 2 of the contestants. Apparently Christopher Columbus was a famous British explorer who discovered the potato and there was another famous explorer called William Drake. Mmmmm.... (They forgot to mention Walter Raleigh famous for discovering the racing bicycle ) Are these people representative of today's bright, up and coming young people who will be running the country... I hope not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadingNorth Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 From what I know of history teaching - indeed, of just about all teaching - nowadays, frankly I'm not surprised. The average young person of today is woefully ill-educated, unless he or she is a bookworm and spent a lot of time finding out things for him/herself. I do think it's important to note the difference between an ill-educated person who knows nothing, and an incompetent person who has wasted a good education. I suspect the vast majority fall into the former camp. I've met a lot of people younger than myself, who know nothing about anything, but are evidently smart when I take the trouble to help them learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickiethecat Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 The blame for such ignorance must go to the PC brigade who changed the way British history is taught in our schools. We should be proud of our great explorers and the British Empire which once ruled the world - instead our kids are taught to be ashamed of our nation's glorious past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mapleboy Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 The Apprentice? Every one of the contestants is completely and utterly unemployable - I wouldn't trust a single one of them to run a bath. How they think any employer will take them on after seeing how they all fail miserably is beyond me. The most pathetic bit is the back-stabbing when one "team" loses, which just confirms how completely useless they all are IMHO. Sadly it's a good example of modern British business managers at their "finest" unfortunately! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
websters gue Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 The blame for such ignorance must go to the PC brigade who changed the way British history is taught in our schools. What's Christopher Columbus got to do with British history? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickycheese Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 I intially found this depressing too... but, having thought about it, it's really not that bad. Perhaps they hadn't been taught this at school. Is knowing who Cristopher Columbus was really that important? Maybe they learnt about different parts of history that are equally (or even more) important? Maybe they just forgot / remembered it badly - I can't claim to remember all I was taught at school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pt cru Posted July 15, 2011 Author Share Posted July 15, 2011 My elder daughter is doing GCSE History and the topics are the rise of the Nazi party between the 2 wars and the civil rights movement in the USA. Very interesting and important to know and her school is doing a good job. I think that because we talk about that sort of stuff at home all the time, it helps to make it interesting and part of her wider general knowledge. I think parents and home life are the key here. Someone said to me recently that if she had nothing to moan about all the time, she'd have nothing to talk about at home. She'd never heared of Nelson Mandela and her general knowlege consists of the shoe shops and bars of Sheffield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickiethecat Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 My elder daughter is doing GCSE History and the topics are the rise of the Nazi party between the 2 wars and the civil rights movement in the USA. It might be interesting to her but neither topic has anything to do with the country she lives in! Surely the history taught in school should be the history of your own country? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pt cru Posted July 15, 2011 Author Share Posted July 15, 2011 The world is a small place and major events in other countries and their consequences are often felt elsewhere and of course the rise of the Nazi party and causes of the 2nd world war is a HUGE part of British history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longcol Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 It might be interesting to her but neither topic has anything to do with the country she lives in! Surely the history taught in school should be the history of your own country? Didn't we end up in a war with Nazi Germany? I think it's a good thing that kids can learn how they came to power - decreases the chance of a similar event happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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