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?

My kids are horrible and at quite a young age sang this version: “Little donkey, little donkey, on the M25. Got run over by a Land Rover, little donkey died” and then it got worse but I’m not typing it out.

DD16 doesn’t know how to tell the time on a clock with hands 🤦‍♀️

Hitler was born in 1889 so could have met QV as a boy, if rather unlikely.

They only cover two religions - Christianity and Islam, and in equal parts...so no real excuse from the course content perspective.

Ha ha! Had the exact same conversation yesterday with my 20, 18 and 16 year olds! No clue !

I had to explain 9/11 to a year 10 class

I do worry about the lack of knowledge in our up and coming generations.I actually didnt get taught that well at school and cant remember my
parents teaching me but Ive always been an avid reader and thats where my general knowledge comes from . People dont seem to read nowadays, if its not on twitter or similar it doesnt exist !

Also year 11’s who’d never heard of the Beatles, which is fair enough but we’re in Liverpool!

My 15 year old DS surprised me by knowing who John Lennon was but in a quiz yesterday had to name something on a Christmas tree and wrote Ballballs!

There are a lot of YouTube channels which are packed full of interesting information if you are interested in their stuff.

Re: teenagers not knowing who Cameron Diaz is... my teens regularly need to tell me who various current celebs are.

tanstaafl · Today 08:15

It’s amazing how many kids we have who have NO practical skills whatsoever. Even down to washing up by hand or changing a battery. It does make me panic a bit about the future 😆

This generally stems from the fact that there are alot of parents who are unable to pass on these skills as they aren't competent themselves.
I was recently asked to go to a friend's house to measure up for some furniture as they did not no how to use a tape measure!
No wonder tradesman are in demand when many have no practical aptitude to do basic household tasks. Especially when a quick look on YouTube will show you how to do most things.

Education should be broader - but that effects the role of exams as a benchmarker. Some of these things I wouldn't expect a teen to know = but they just make us feel old. But some are crucial practical life skills or essential to the understanding of the world and society we live in. (We'd all have different views on which are which I expect).
There are things as an oldie that I have to ask my DD how to do or what they mean - so it works both ways.

Know

My friend was a history teacher and one child in her year 9 class thought Titanic and Noah’s ark were the same story.

I'm amazed at anyone not knowing who William and Harry are, especially with the coverage of QE2's funeral and the business with Harry and Meghan.
It doesn't mean that you support the monarchy or otherwise.

My 8 year old told us we should be lucky we don't live in America as they have to pay taxes and we don't 🤣

Life long learning @ThisTimeNext !

I simply mean that teaching there is a sequence beginning with Australopithecus, through Neanderthals, and on to Homo Sapiens is fundamentally flawed, both being factually incorrect, and ideologically highly misguided, in reinforcing the very unscientific concepts of "advanced/primitive/ superior/ inferior more/less evolved etc.

No one knows the relationship between Australopithecus and Homo, but they coexisted and interacted for millions of years, maybe as competitor, or cooperatively. Homo sapien neanderthalis and Homo sapien sapiens similarly coexisted, and interbred when they met. We are all 99.5% H.s sapien and 0.5%H.s.neanderthalis.

There are many different theories and interpretations of the evidence, but teaching these three as a sequence, some a primitive one leading on to a "Better" one, is so misleading. On a purely basic UK educational level, these ideas will get you 0 on evolution questions in your GCSE science, but on a world wide level, these misconceptions of the place of our species in the world leads to the sort of environmental catastrophes we all fear.

No reason at all not to teach history chronologically! Thats one way, just as good as any other way, but not evolution and the origins of humankind

My 15 yo is doing Christmas Carol at GCSE and when the film came on telly a couple of days ago started talking about when Bob Marley was going to show up.

She did admit she has a problem and gets Jacob Marley and Bob Cratchit all mixed up - hopefully it’ll click before she takes her exams.

we had a couple of puppies visit the school in 2018, that were going to be trained as guide dogs. The puppies were called Harry and Meghan. No children at all knew who they were named after, and neither did all the staff. I think they came to the fore quite a lot more during the boredom of lock down. I knew Harry's name but not Meghan's, until the dog handler explained. ALthough I would have got "Kate and William"

I read an avid reader, but I also learned a lot from watching TV with my parents and having to watch what they watched. I ended up learning all sorts. The dc have much narrower focus cos they can choose what they look for.

Lack of general and cultural knowledge is making English increasingly hard to teach, because you have to explain everything.

Yes would have been around the same time. I am frequently amazed at how invested adults are in other people's business...it's not healthy.

Not my teenager, but I was in the supermarket and the young lad that was scanning my shopping looked ever so confused when he got the courgettes. I had to tell him what they were so he could put them through on the till 😬

Me too! When my kids went through the "Why...?" phase, I always answered. Even if I had to Google lots some of it. Like "why do planets spin?" (Absolutely no idea son, give me a few minutes...)

Magna Carta

They don't know what a mortgage is. I think things like this should be taught In school it's life skills they need