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.

But a common toy for kids in nurseries used to be a large cardboard picture of a shoe with laces to tie.

We had a nature table at school and did nature rather than science, I think it was v helpful as it was all about frogs & tadpoles etc which gives you an interest in the environment rather than the more abstract

Keep them coming everybody, this is brightening up my evening! Some of these have surprised me, such as pupils being thrilled about travelling by bus. I remember being told we would be going on a school trip in a "coach"; from Thomas the Tank Engine, I thought that meant a single railway carriage.

@MitziK I remember how often "yacht" used to come up in children's books about the alphabet: not many children's words begin with Y. Also it's not pronounced how it's spelled at all! I remember I used to be annoyed that the page for "X" would often be a word that didn't begin with X, such as "fox", "axe", etc.

It used to be most kids could tie their shoes by the time they started school.

Like when? Like, in never-never land?

I've heard this once before, from a teacher who claimed she was seeing a huge decline in her reception classes, and they were awful, and she was so glad to be retiring soon. She had obviously quite forgotten that I'd been in one of her reception classes and, unlike her, I remembered quite clearly how most of us hadn't a clue about shoelaces, myself included.

yabbers
Marks and Spencer also do a couple of Velcro girls styles in large sizes.

Ah yes yacht - I read a lot of books but didn’t ever hear the words (no one read to me!) and I had no clue how to actually say it out loud

Odd someone mentioned their sixth formers not knowing about the programme Friends - my sixth form dd and her friends all watch it as does my university aged dd, it's really popular thanks to streaming services

SarahandQuack I have just read it in an article about research around child development. They were talking about 30 years ago.

Certainly I know 50 years ago when I was at primary school, all kids wore lace up shoes. I first saw velcro shoes worn by severely disabled teenagers about 30 years ago, they were specialist and not available in your high street shop.

Maybe some kids struggled still, but no way was the teacher tying 30 shoe laces at PE - remember no TAs then.

And I worked in a nursery 30 years ago, we were trying to teach 3 year olds to tie their laces. They could not then, but they were being taught.

I pressed post too soon but I hope the jist was clear.

We didn’t have lace up shoes in primary, just plimsolls.

I worked with a grown up women who said she hated mashed potato because it was too runny. I asked her what she meant. She said it's disgusting and doesn't taste of anything and is basically just thick white water. After much prodding it transpired she'd only had it twice, both times she had mashed the potatoes while they were still in the water she had boiled them in.

Wow I am surprised Eastpoint. 50 years ago we wore plimsolls for PE, but had to have proper shoes for the rest of the time. I don't remember anyone wearing plimsolls except for PE.

Oh, that's interesting about velcro not existing being given as the reason.

We all tucked the laces back into our shoes, of course!

(Incidentally, 30 year ago would be exactly when I was in reception. No, definitely wasn't the norm for us to be able to do our shoelaces, but it is also absolutely true no one did them for us either.)

sarahandquack Yes I can imagine some kids doing that.
Yes it wasn't that parents were somehow more on the ball about teaching kids to tie laces. They just had no choice but to buy shoes with laces. The only kids shoes you got without laces were very basic plimsolls and wellies.

DDs nursery teaches them to tie shoe laces. They have a big wooden cut out shoe and then a smaller and smaller one. Not allowed to wear laced up shoes until they get it ticked off!

As an aside, I also didn’t know horses ate grass

I’m 44 - we wore plimsolls (or slippers indoors & wellies outside in the winter) through infant & junior school.

SarahandQuack That makes sense. What the teacher will remember is that she never tied shoelaces. I know I have the same type of memory i.e. working in a nursery I never changed a nappy. I have no idea whether those kids wore a nappy at night, I just know while they were at nursery I never had to change a nappy and rarely had to deal with an accident.
I think most memories are like that in terms of childcare. What you remember is what you as an adult did at work.

What's amazing me here is why parents aren't teaching these basics before school starts. It is unfortunately probably down to the use of nurseries - people assume they are teaching them so don't actually take responsibility themselves. My DD's could tell the time, write their name, knew the alphabet, numbers and play cards before starting school. We played cards from about 2, I remember clearly playing with them at 2&4 whilst outer boots and socks dried after getting soaked hiking (the location pinpoints their age).

Perhaps parents should be given guidelines for this sort of thing! Oh and they could tie laces too at 4, their boots didn't have Velcro

‘Best’ shoes had buckles! I don’t think I had any lace up shoes until I started secondary and had to get hockey boots - even then I wore loafers as school shoes.

My 9yo can do laces, I haven’t had any reason to teach my 7yo yet!

Lanieka Okay I accept that some schools did this. I never came across this. Also just googled school photos of this era and none of the kids are wearing plimsolls unless doing PE, or wellies.
But what I had forgotten is that lots of the girls are wearing shoes with buckles. Don't know how I forgot about those types of shoes for girls as I wore them myself as a girl.
Shows how unreliable memory can be.

I am very impressed by the knowledge the teenagers I teach with regard to popular music. Their back catalogue goes back 50 years or so. What I am not impressed by is the lack of knowledge between 'contents' and 'index' in a book. Aaarrgh.

Do kids not play cards these days then with parents?

YY, I can imagine that. You remember the things that stand out as a hassle! Though, with nappies, something I have heard that sounds plausible, is that the old terry-cloth nappies were uncomfortable when wet, motivating children to want to potty-train sooner (not to mention mums who were washing them). My own mum is constantly amazed how much better disposable nappies have go since we were tiny.

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

Don't you just write their name and address/postcode in the centre of the envelope?