To be shocked that not even one y4 child knew the meaning of the word velvet?

[Utterlybananas333]

My sister is a teacher in a South London primary school, she is a year four teacher of around 30 8 to 9-year-olds. She was recently describing her disbelief over the fact that not a single child knew what velvet meant? There were some crazy guesses, and lots of children who thought it was cake (probably relating to red velvet). Is it just the fact that children and adults don't talk anymore? That nobody reads anymore? Or even watches educational TV programs? Would your child know?

Just asked 5yo.

He said “it’s a nice red colour”.

Cake will be it.

Velvet as a fabric went out of style in the 90s. Where are those kids seeing velvet or hearing the word? Not in their homes or in shops or anywhere really.

I just asked my 8 year old and she answered that it was a type of clothing fabric, so she knows. YANBU

Hmmm not sure my Children would know. No velvet grey house here 😅 one tom boy girl and one sparkly girl. No velvet dresses
either. My son is definitely not about to rock a velvet tracksuit either 😂😂

It’s not a fabric I’ve ever liked really tho maybe the stocking are but can’t say we discuss the materials.

Petticoat. (What's that? )

How many households have newspapers and magazines in them any more though ? Far fewer than a few decades ago ...

Haven't any of them read Ballet Shoes? 😱

DS recently had a haircut and we were running finger nails through his short, fuzzy bits and I said it was "velvety".

He probably doesn't care that I wear velvet dresses about twice a year.

It's a word I picked up verbally rather than through books, although as an 80s child, words like velvet and taffeta were in my vocabulary

I remember being pretty confused about things like poplin and taffeta when I came across them in books like Ballet Shoes/Anne of Green Gables

One child knowing it doesn't prove anything, your child could know every word in the dictionary but it doesn't follow that every other child would or should

General knowledge generally is not what it was - huge gaps in ‘cultural capital’. Not saying not knowing velvet is an issue in itself, but it fits with the pattern I’m seeing (I teach secondary English). If I’m reading anything with a KS3 class now I have to use Google Images to show them what things look like, or they just can’t understand a lot of the time - it’s usually things like animals, specific trees and flowers, household objects, some food items, types of building, specific colours they’ve never heard of… I even had to show one class what a nun was because they didn’t all know that word. Once I show them something they generally recognise it - they’ve just never been taught the name for it. This is a standard state comp. It’s good to be responsive and not assume they know, but it is worrying how many gaps in their knowledge there are. It’s leading to a lot of misconceptions in their reading that are nothing to do with their reading ability.

Most people don't buy physical magazines anymore so no, and I don't know what circles you move in but I haven't encountered a velvet sofa in years.

This is outrageous.

We read the hodgeheg in year 3! All understood why the title was funny

These parents shoukd be taken to task

Depends what they are exposed to - mine did at that age as one really liked it as had texture issues - and DH makes clothes and watches programs about that so it's in background.

DD2 surpised at how much history she picked up - as we talk about it - tv radio day trips out - it comes up as background noise.

There are odd words that come up I don't know or kids don't know we just look them up. I do think many kids books seem to use simplar language than in yesteryear but there are also more and easier accessed than when I was a kid in 80s - and that was where a lot of my more oudated vocabulary was picked up.

Have you been in a supermarket lately? Shelves upon shelves of interiors magazines, women's magazines, TV magazines...

People are still reading magazines. And kids are still perfectly capable of picking up what a parent has been looking at and reading it.

Currently quite fashionable

That's exactly what it made me think of.
Lots of fabric descriptions that I didn't know, like tulle (sp?) and organza.

I was in a large sofa shop last week, I dont think any of the safas I saw were velvet. Admittedly it wasnt a high end hand made furniture makers

I just asked my 6 year old and he said it’s a type of fabric. But he had a book when he was younger, ‘that’s not my puppy’ or similar where there were all sorts of materials to feel.

Some of the responses here are hilarious considering how much horrible grey crushed velvet furniture is currently around. It’s just velvet, a perfectly normal contemporary fabric, especially for soft furnishings, it’s hardly winceyette or bri-nylon

You surely aren't arguing that sales of physical magazines are anywhere like they were 10 or 20 years ago? Just because they are stocked in shops doesn't mean lots of people are buying them. They aren't.

This is making me feel out of sync with other people - quite a lot of my winter wardrobe is velvet! And so are my curtains!

And velvet sofas are fairly normal among my friends and relatives… the LOAF kind were very popular a few years ago, no? Wouldn’t consider velvet not in usage at all!

It’s not velvet anymore. It’s generally velour as it’s cheaper.

I had a proper cerise velvet dress with a lace collar and knee high socks when l was little in the 70’s. Velvet was everywhere then!

I’m sure that no matter what moment in time this has always been a “thing” ie. Adults expressing shock that children don’t know what something (probably not relevant in the modern age) is. Dd14 didn’t know what something was recently (can’t remember exactly what it was but something akin to velvet) and I was shocked - she is very intelligent, well read and we as a family talk about all kinds of things - it’s just that that particular thing had obviously never come up in conversation until now!

Earlier today we were telling dd20 and her friends about corporate punishment and dh getting hit with a ruler and they were so shocked and laughing hysterically (I don’t thing they believed us!) it’s just different generations.

Yes I do lol.
Love velvet at Christmas time. I have velvet wide leg trousers, velvet skirt and a velvet blazer.