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.

Bloody hell, of COURSE time is taught in Primary. Year 3 teachers all over the country will be hammering it for weeks. However, the skill is lost if it isn't used all the time.

I went on a school trip with some 16 year olds. On the coach home, we passed an Asda. One of them said, “We’re home - look, there’s Asda.” He had no idea that Asda was a national chain, he thought that it was just his local shop and no others existed.

my 14 yr old could go on mastermind with her knowledge of Friends and Marvel Universe although most of that is relatively new.

But yes struggles with the clock thing despite Hubby spending HOURS with a wooden clock with her. But given she is going into GCSE years I might get her to make more of an effort...

knowing what 'change' is at the shop. As a new teacher I was so surprised kids had no idea.

I never use anything else than my credit card, I am really not surprised.
My own kids only use physical money when we are on holiday because it's the only time we get cash out

coconuttelegraph
dictionary are on the list of basic books to get for a Year 1 child in my school - a bog standard state school, they start using them at 5 or 6 years old!

*dictionaries even

Ah now, time is tricky. Go on, how many of you can instantly convert 3.8 hours (as shown on your calculator) into hours and minutes?

Yay, let’s all pick on the kids.

Let’s forget they don’t know because we haven’t taught them. 🙄

Mostly I am amazed at the things DD(10) does know, some of which are things I don’t know, and I’m well educated.

I am also certain my mum’s generation said the same about what I didn’t know when I was 10, in fact she still goes on about what we don’t know that we should, and yet we’ve all grown up to be capable, successful adults.

Perhaps instead of moaning about what they don’t know, maybe find out what you can learn from them. You might be surprised.

There's a brilliant video doing the rounds on social media at the moment of 2 teenages trying to dial a number on a rotary dial phone, they have no clue. I love it.

We've just done yr2 SATs, the number that didn't know their surnames amazed me, I don't mean couldn't spell them, I mean actually didn't know what their surname was. Admittedly my DD was still spelling hers wrong in year 2 (it ends in in, she kept putting ing) but she did at least know it.

My teenage dds only just found out that the homosexual age of consent was 21 until 1994 and was not lowered to 16 until 2000. They couldn’t believe it.

I also recently heard a teen ask “what do you call a selfie when you don’t take it yourself?”

Yabbers no one is having a go at the kids, we’re just expressing surprise.

Yay, let’s all pick on the kids.

Let’s forget they don’t know because we haven’t taught them.

WHO is picking on the kids? Of course it's adults who haven't taught them, where did you say anyone pretending otherwise?

my DD were 10 before they could tie a shoelace (velcro 😊)
This is a real pain in the arse for us. Kids shoes get to size 2 or 3 and Velcro completely disappears. Shoes are all lace up as if Velcro is such a terrible thing. Half the time kids laces are undone, why do we insist on having lace up shoes? DD can tie laces but because she wears splints it is virtually impossible to put on lace up shoes without completely pulling out all the laces. We went looking today and couldn’t get a single pair of Velcro shoes in size 3. I swear it’s only tradition and because people get pissy about kids not being able to tie up laces.

Bloody hell, of COURSE time is taught in Primary. Year 3 teachers all over the country will be hammering it for weeks.
Indeed, we were amazed when time was still a topic DD is doing in P5

Telling the time is taught in every year from year one. But it's a spectacularly complex subject to teach to young kids who have no need to use it most of the time. With the addition of rarely seeing analogue clocks, digital time being every where but not connecting to the spoken version of telling the time, not needing to look up times for tv programmes, 24 hour clock... Can you tell we've spent a painful 3 weeks on it recently?!

I am constantly amazed at what people, not just children, don’t know.
Equally impressed by what they know as well.
I think you have to be interested in a subject to retain the information beyond school.

@LarryGreysonsDoor What other words do children not know the meanings of?

I use an ink eraser; some of my pupils have never seen one before, and their eyes light up, until they learn that they only work if you use the right ink. I then tell them about teachers who banned pupils from using biros, who probably remembered using pens which had to be dipped in ink!

"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’."

One of my first memories is of learning to read aged 4, and of staring at the word "has" in total bafflement. I think I thought all words had concrete meanings like "cat", "red", "walk" etc.

Yabbers no one is having a go at the kids, we’re just expressing surprise.
Why be surprised if we aren’t teaching them? Or is it just surprise that nobody else is teaching them these things you all think it’s terrible they don’t know.

WHO is picking on the kids? Of course it's adults who haven't taught them, where did you say anyone pretending otherwise?

The title of the threads is “...things pupils don’t know” not “...things pupils aren’t taught” followed by several posts talking about all those thinks that kids don’t know, with a very definite undertone of how stupid of them. Not one person has mentioned the fact they haven’t been taught this stuff.

I can't remember where I heard/read it, but I got a chuckle out of the teacher bringing a floppy disk in to show teenagers, and a student commented "it's a 3D print of the save button"

Not one person has mentioned the fact they haven’t been taught this stuff.

probably because it's so obvious it didn't need to be

Telling the time in secondary definitely! I sometimes catch kids looking at their phones in lessons and they say “I was only checking the time” - I’m starting to realise for a large number it’s actually true as they can’t read the massive analogue clock on the wall!

Anything about the tv show Friends

I'm a lot older and know practically nothing about that show. I have never watched it.

I taught a very clever ten year old who couldn't spell her surname. "I mean, miss, it is double barrelled and half of its German and there IS A LOT of letters..." Loved that kid!