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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that every person above age 10 at least should know that the moon affects the tides?

222 replies

HateSummer · 19/08/2017 14:44

Confused

I was working with someone aged in their early 20's recently who had never heard of this and were really shocked. I was really shocked they didnt know.

Isn't this basic science taught in primary school? Along with the moon cycle and seasons?

OP posts:
MsPassepartout · 20/08/2017 11:28

I work with people (adults! grin) who don't know:
- the order of the alphabet
- the order of the months

I find it pretty shocking that someone could leave school not knowing those, especially the order of the months. There's alphabets and calendars plastered all over the nurseries and primary schools I've been in.

Even without that - surely by the time someone's an adult, they'd have picked up on the fact that it's always e.g. January before February?

orlantina · 20/08/2017 12:10

Seems DS didn't know about the moon and tides. He's been to the beach loads but thought it was mainly the wind.

eyebrowsonfleek · 20/08/2017 12:21

I disagree that STEM is majorly pushed at school. Primary School science isn't taught consistently well in my opinion as primary school teachers aren't specialists in science.
My teenage son covered parts of plants at least 3 times during his 6 year later at primary.

My children knew the moon affected tides by age 10 but that's because we watch documentaries sometimes and they like ones about under the sea best.

I think that there are bigger gaps in people's knowledge than the tides. I've known adults who can't read analogue clocks, work out change in a shop or change a lightbulb.

Your general knowledge is just a reflection on your life. I'm 40 and there's lots of things I've never used or done - used a sewing machine, wired a plug or slept in a tent overnight

Kittychatcat · 20/08/2017 12:23

I'll admit that I didn't know this until I had my own DC and they learned about it. I was educated during the 1960s and 1970s when there was no national curriculum and primary schools taught whatever the teachers knew about rather than what children needed to know. I could speak French quite well but I barely knew any science or geography when I went to secondary school. I suspect if you asked everyone over 50 about the moon and tides about a third wouldn't know what you were talking about!

inappropriateraspberry · 20/08/2017 12:35

I'd be surprised if someone didn't know there was a connection between the two, but I wouldn't expect them to know how it works - I'm not completely sure! Something to do with gravity?

WyfOfBathe · 20/08/2017 12:42

I did know that, but I've never needed that knowledge and it doesn't really interest me. I'm much more interested in things like linguistics and sociology than in physical geography.

Can you explain the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and some opposing theories? After all, language is also an important part of the world around us. I don't think that not knowing about one thing means that people don't have a thirst for knowledge, they're just interested in different things.

FeelingAggrieved · 20/08/2017 12:54

YABU. There are probably 'need to know' things that you don't know! It's the same for everyone.

DownWithThisSortaThing · 20/08/2017 12:57

Even without that - surely by the time someone's an adult, they'd have picked up on the fact that it's always e.g. January before February?

I thought so too, but there were two people at work who admitted they didn't know the right order of the months with one mixing up March and May and June and July, and the other not sure whether October or November came first. I was staggered, I have to say, but they said their calendar/phone tells them what month it is so they don't have to remember Confused

Weedsnseeds1 · 20/08/2017 13:03

Try playing articulate! Playing board games with friends last night and amongst several gems a stand out was me repeating "Hannibal" over and over while my partner gave the clue " rode over the Alps on an elephant". I assumed the card must have Hannibal's first name on it or something and couldn't for the life of me think that I'd ever heard him referred to as anything but Hannibal. The answer on the card? Ghegis Khan!!!

DownWithThisSortaThing · 20/08/2017 13:03

Oh and the ones who didn't know the alphabet - obviously know all the letters but stumbled when they got to 'qrstuvw' and really, genuinely couldn't remember the order. A couple of them can't alphabetise files for example, correctly.

Weedsnseeds1 · 20/08/2017 13:14

Just looked it up. Hannibal was Hannibal Barca Smile
Still wouldn't get Ghegis Khan from that clue though!

Gabilan · 20/08/2017 13:36

'we're not in the EU anymore'.

Oh dear lord. I need a scream emoticon.

specialsubject · 20/08/2017 14:31

The point about literature - I haven't read dickens, Austen etc because I couldn't stand them. Tried at school and tried again as an adult - no, Elizabeth Bennet is still a smug bullying gold digger, product of a horrible dysfunctional marriage.

But I have heard of the classics and know roughly what they are about. That is the important bit.

CockacidalManiac · 20/08/2017 14:43

It is just such a small piece of knowledge. I have an MA in literature - I don't go around telling people they don't have a thirst for knowledge because they can't read old English, don't know who Eliza Haywood is, or can't tell me the origins of female pirate myth in Elizabethan plays - all things I think are actually very relevant to our language and way of perceiving writing today.

If any one of those were basic general knowledge, you wouldn't have to cover it in a MA would you? The moon controlling the tides is pretty Ladybird book level stuff.

Dina1234 · 20/08/2017 14:49

That's not the important bit. It's the quality of the writing not the content that is of significance as far as literary novels are concerned. I must agree with you on P&P though. It really drops off after part 1. I normally don't read past that point.

BackforGood · 20/08/2017 15:19

When I was at primary school in the 1960s I was definitely taught that there were 5 continents

Indeed,
and that we have 5 senses
and that Pluto was a planet
and that England were world leaders at football Wink

Stuff changes.

4691IrradiatedHaggis · 20/08/2017 16:04

YABU.
I know all about it as that kind of stuff fascinates me (space, Earth, etc) but I don't expect everyone else to automatically know what I do.
I don't know everything, and neither does anyone else. I'd put money on the fact that you'll have gaps in your knowledge somewhere too.

4691IrradiatedHaggis · 20/08/2017 16:06

and that Pluto was a planet

Yes! When the then 7 year old came home from school learning about the planets and I found out that Pluto was no longer a planet, it's been declassified as one, I was like [shocked]
I still say it is. Poor Pluto, kicked out of the planet club because it's deemed too small. Pfft.

kesstrel · 20/08/2017 16:27

and the ones who didn't know the alphabet - obviously know all the letters but stumbled when they got to 'qrstuvw' and really, genuinely couldn't remember the order.

I remember articles by educationalists in the 90s arguing that children didn't need to learn the alphabet because it wasn't relevant to learning to read. The ability to file, use a dictionary etc weren't even mentioned.

glitterlips1 · 20/08/2017 16:31

Didn't know, I am 38. I asked my husband and he knew. Asked my 10 year old and he didn't. I feel dumb!

LurkingHusband · 20/08/2017 16:50

I've known adults who can't read analogue clocks, work out change in a shop or change a lightbulb.

A couple of years ago, Sainsburys ran a (so far not repeated* ...) campaign where you could round your bill up for charity.

(Now, if I had been involved, I would have spent a few quid on modifying the till software to do the rounding up bit. However, Sainsburys didn't. So that he till operator had to ask how much you wanted to add ...)

Anyways, I said I'd round up, and the assistant said "how much ?". The bill was something like £19.67, so I said straightway "33 pence, please."

The operator added it, and said "Ooooo, you are lucky, it's excatly £20.00".

(in future, I know to keepo my mouth shut and smile ...)

"Oh" I said "it wasn't luck. I worked it out ..."
"Don't be silly" said the operator ...
"No, I really did ..."

at which point the (older) lady behind me in the queue jumped in ...

"Well I don't think it's nice to make fun of the young person like that ... why can't you be honest and admit you were lucky."

I looked at her face, and this was most definitely not a reverse.

Ever since then, I have been wary that to some, mental arithmetic is akin to witchcraft.

*I may have an idea why it wasn't repeated Smile.

TroysMammy · 20/08/2017 17:37

Regarding the analogue clock, I gave someone an appointment time the other day "twenty to eleven," then after a second pause I said "10.40". The person on the other end of the phone asked her partner "twenty to eleven or 10.40?" I quickly said "they're both the same".

LottieDoubtie · 20/08/2017 18:25

I taught someone with a physics degree to read the analogue clock age 28.

Gabilan · 20/08/2017 19:00

There's a programme on BBC4 about the moon starting right now. "Do we need the moon?" I'm guessing yes.

Flybye · 20/08/2017 19:05

I'm 44 and I didn't know. And I read a lot. And yes I do wonder about the world around me but I only look up things that interest me. The moon and the tides don't.