Surprising things pupils don't know?

[letsgomaths]

Usually, we adults are surprised when the younger generation do know something we don't expect. But are there any times you have been surprised by a child or teenager being quite unfamiliar with something you thought they would know about, or have had to shift your expectations? Here are some I things I have had to explain unexpectedly, come and share yours!

Pin the tail on the donkey. I used it in a maths question about probability: a pupil had never even heard of it! I didn't get them to play it though.

Also about probability, I've sometimes had to explain playing cards to teenagers who have never used them.

I once had to explain to a teenager what a microscope is used for: it was news to them.

I was going to add the Millennium Bug to this list (it seems like only yesterday everyone was terrified of the impending doom), then I realised most of my pupils hadn't been born then!

I quite enjoy telling pupils about old technology, such as looking things up on microfiche, or TVs that were not flat screen.

I teach very young children to read.
What I find odd is the number of simple words they don’t know the meaning of. Gap is a common one, and the word ‘and’, they say it like it is a foreign word when they sound it out and can’t put it into a sentence. It’s the same with ‘the’.
In one of the early stories they learn to read someone eats an egg and cress sandwich, I had to find a picture of some cress.

I work in a high school, many many children can't tell the time on an analogue clock.

How to address an envelope (at secondary!). We used to send reports home in envelopes and the kids had to write their parents’ name and address on it.

Some didn’t know their own address/post code. Lots wrote the address in the top left.

Now we send reports electronically so god knows when kids will learn this.

LarryGrayson, we grew cress and made egg and cress sandwiches in class

I work with someone who doesn't know how to use a landline phone.

It dept are always asking for cassettes vhs tapes etc to show during the relics of the past topic.

Unusually the kids are always singing 1980s power ballads in the corridor

Never played cards, don’t know how to throw a dice. There was a piece on Radio 4 on Friday about people not knowing how to use an analogue clock. Some students really struggle with timing in their GCSEs because of this.

@twoheaped Teenagers not being able to use an analogue clock was mentioned on Radio 4 earlier this week.

I remember one of my fellow pupils (when I was at primary) not knowing what a thimble looked like; the teacher had to draw one. But I probably didn't know either!

What's microfiche?

I teach at university (19 year olds mainly). Several had never heard of Madonna.

I taught one girl who didn't know what the beach was I had to look up some photos on the internet so she'd have a point of reference for story writing!

my DD were 10 before they could tie a shoelace (velcro 😊)

I had one this week not know a fortnight was a period of time. And that was how it was spelled.

🤦

A twelve year old who was convinced that mushrooms were meat. Another twelve year old who thought Jesus 'killed all the Jews'. This is only this week. I've actually got hundreds of these.

When I teach 'passe-temps' in French and say it means a pass time, they stare at me blankly until I say hobby. French would be easier to teach in general kids read more in English and had a wider vocabulary.

The students I teach always seem really surprised when they find out that my colleagues and I are (mostly ) friends, and that we socialise outside of work...so, surprised we all have lives basically!

The 80's power ballads thing is not so surprising really when you consider the age their parents might be!

When ds was 14 he "helped" one Christmas by sticking stamps on all the Christmas cards I'd written. Except he stuck the stamps in the top left hand corner. He'd never addressed an envelope before (I did all the addresses on thank you cards etc).

@BoomZahramay Microfiche: in the days before you could quickly look things up on a computer, you might have a huge database (for instance, the entire list of book titles in a library) printed on a tiny transparent sheet of plastic, in microscopic print. You would load it into a machine, which would magnify it on a screen so you could read it.

I've taught y6 for years, the children have to fill in the front of their SATs papers and there's always at least one who doesn't know that doesn't know their date of birth and another who can't spell there surname.

My mum is a retired primary teaching assistant (18 years and retired 3 yrs ago). She was shocked at how little the children knew about nature, couldn’t name birds or trees other than bird or tree 😂 the school backed onto a wood and was / still is “outstanding” 🙄

I teach sixth form students, some things they didn't know (off the top of my head) include:

Anything about the tv show Friends

Margaret Thatcher - "we never had a female prime minister in this country though Miss!"

That Scotland is a different country from England

Madonna

The placebo effect

Egg and soldiers

Eton mess

DD is 9. We live in a village. I think we spend a fair amount of time out & about and, certainly when we go for a walk, feel as though I am constantly pointing out "interesting" things to them in the hope they will stop moaning.
You can imagine my horror yesterday when we were talking about a bird nesting in the garden & I said something about eggs & baby birds & DD had no idea that birds built nests to lay eggs & out of those eggs came their young. She just thought they made themselves a new home each spring. She knew other animals (including chickens!!) laid eggs and their young hatched from there but not garden birds like pigeons & sparrows.

(their surname maybe? :) don't worry I do mistypes sometimes too)

I didn’t know what Eton Mess was until mid 20s....

I was recently asked by a young colleague if 'services' was a real place coz he'd seen lots of signs for it but didn't know where it was??? I genuinely had to explain what services was!