Things you can’t believe your teenager doesn’t know

[Annoyingwurringnoise]

My teenage DS, who went to a Church of England primary school, does not know the song Little Donkey. I am utterly perplexed as to how this can possibly be. He’s been a donkey twice in nativity plays, once at preschool and once at school, but he swears he doesn’t remember Little Donkey.

What things have you found out your teenagers don’t know that’s just left you scratching your head in disbelief?

Ted Wragg. There’s a name that takes me back!

Looks like someone could use a lesson in critically evaluating sources rather than believing any old tosh on the internet 😎

I frequently tell my teen DCs that they're philistines.
Their response? "What's a philistine?"
Sigh.

I'd write to the Daily Mail.

Also - isn't it "Sin" nowadays?

Took a group of 12-14 year olds on an activities day trip to an escape room. They had to play a cassette tape for a clue - I had to put it in the machine and play it for them as none of them knew what it was 🤦🏻‍♀️. I mean, I never used records when I was younger but I knew what they were.

“My teen knows the basic bible stories from school and I have explained that a lot of our significant days and festivals originally came from Pagan times and were just appropriated by Christian’s and other religions.“

I always thought this but it’s not as true as all that apparently. Puritans in the 16th century were a big fan of this line of reasoning (re Christmas for instance) because it allowed them to slag off Catholics and make everyone go to work on Christmas Day (simplifying!).

I’m proud to say I knew that😊 I was familiar with her as a child because my mum always referred to her as the most beautiful woman in the world.

Two DSS one 18 the other 14 do not know their address! Ours or their mother's off the top of theirs heads.
One even thought the post code was specifically just for 1 house?!
My 12 year old has know this for years infact the 5 year old does too. Don't get it.
Same with telling the time.
Say time is 17.28pm I got 2 minutes to half 5.... what??

Aren't they characters from in the night garden?

They were, though. Umpteen pre-Christian festivals occur underneath/behind major Christian celebrations. They’re still with us.
(Ask any black-cloaked Goth with a pentagram pendant glooming down the High Street, and she’ll reel off the four great Celtic festivals, which she learned about in her ‘Witches Against The Patriarchy’ seminar!)

My grand daughter had no idea how to use a tin opener ! She FaceTimed me to ask !

I knew that as Hannah Fry did a documentary about "The wonders of Modern Life" and was discussing wi-fi

I hope parents still present kids with a copy of ‘1066 And All That’ at roughly the ninth birthday. Instilling a good British grasp of history is essential! 🤓

Ted Wragg. There’s a name that takes me back!

Yes, I expect he’d have shaken hands with Queen Victoria, Hitler and Napoleon.

Yes, I remember that too, and we learned it at primary school. I used to play it on the recorder in assemblies.

If you genuinely want to understand what the younger generations don’t understand work in an industry that requires you explaining the bare minimum of running a household (like changing a light bulb) to a 20 something. I promise you it will bring you a whole new understanding of where we are failing our children. My SS will have all sorts of practical skills, but I am not sure where that will leave him surrounded by those that do not!

Sadly I genuinely do think that we forget to parent children doesn’t just mean ‘keeping them safe’ but rather teaching them the life skills they need to keep themselves safe, survive and thrive! Equally I thing the onset of more time on devices doesn’t help, everything these days is about ‘influencers’ on social media rather than partial skills for life for kids.

I learned how to wire a plug in science lessons. I also watched my mum do it at home. I have never, ever changed a plug. Have changed a tire though.

Ds has had his own bank account for 2 years. He has yet to actually use his cash card.

Landline phones are still in most offices.

I’d sympathise there, if it’s concerning those one-handed ones,
I bought one without paying attention a few years back, but once in the kitchen realised I could NOT come up with any way at all to get it to work. I was almost crying in frustration after about an hour of inelegant shape-throwing, trying to get my arms into the necessary positions to get the blasted thing going, then at last I remembered that you can find ‘How To’ videos for loads of things on YouTube.
Even then, and to this day, it’s very much touch and go, and I give praise for ring pull cans of chickpeas!

the only tin opener I can get to work is the bog standard cheap one from Wilko. The expensive ones seem to only work a few times

Anything geographical, in the sense of where places are. No, London (far to our south) is not in France and Belgium is not somewhere in the midlands. Forget about Asia. It would help if the (early teen and preteen) would learn the continents, but it doesn’t seem to matter how many times they are told or shown maps…

There’s a good reason that “The capital of Peru” was for many of us an evocative reminder of the rote learning we went through in so many subjects. Capital cities, the oceans, continents. Outlining plastic shapes of Britain using that awful Izal loo paper for tracing....maybe it all appeared a terrible waste of time, but the manner of it all imprinted enormous caches of data
. (Later on, geography got sexy, with really thrilling field trips to Patterdale and Porlock. I’ve never forgotten what I learned about glaciation! I hope today’s kids get some of that.)

When I worked for the Ordnance Survey somebody told me that about 1 in 10 people just plain can't read maps, or make any sense out of them, and it's not a sign of stupidity. I do remember quite recently discussing with a colleague our worksite building, which we were looking at on a street plan. I said something about 'the north side of the building' and he said 'How do you know which side faces north?'. I explained that normally north is at the top of maps, and pointed to the compass rose with 'N' and a big arrow in the corner. This was all news to him.

Today's homework for the Year 7 "what happened in 1069?“ the end of the Battle of Hastings and a coronation of a new monarch were not the answer, I had no further idea to assist!

My son who is studying music at school, he knew the song, "its Christmas" I know not its title. But he didn't know who Noddy Holder is!! So they played the music, but no one pointed out who was in the band. 🤦‍♀️ What do They teach, as he also didn't know what Album "Teen sprit came from"