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.

A year 8 girl looked gob smacked when I said we only had fresh pineapple at Christmas when I was at school. It was too expensive. We bought tinned pineapple rings to have with gammon steak. She checked the next time she went to the supermarket and cane into class saying - you were right, tinned fruit is a thing!
Her family didn't buy tinned fruit so it was an alien concept to her!
My lovely DD (8) has a digital watch and an analogue clock and likes to compare them because she knows she struggles with analogue time. It's very cute.

Not a teacher but was married to one so have been enjoying this thread, we were at the pool at the weekend and an older boy, must have been at least 17 latched on to us as he couldn't tell the time on the analogue clock. Felt really bad because he kept asking and we just kept pointing to the clock on the wall until he said he couldn't read it. One time I said it was half past and he kept questioning me until I explained 'it's half way between 4 and 5' and he beamed and said it's 30! I didn't realise how common it was. My boys must have had good explanations in school because I realise now I never taught them how to do it.

My youngest has never been on a train as we live so far from a station to travel that way would require a lengthy car journey so why not carry on that way. He's 12! Quite tempted to drive to a train station now just to give him the experience.

I feel a bit uneasy reading posts like yours stucknoue. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But there will always be children whose parents try very hard to teach them, but who will struggle to learn. And there will probably always be parents who don't have the capacity to teach those skills (and maybe don't have them). There will probably always be parents who are barely making ends meet and really struggle to find time. These days, it is a luxury for many people to be able not to send children to nursery.

Haha, admittedly I couldn't tie shoe laces until I was on the juniors. I didn't need to though, because I never wore laced shoes as a young kid - everything was velcro or buckles for school shoes, trainers, and sandals, or slip-on boots.

SarahandQuack Yes I think the old style nappies made it easier to toilet train kids because the kids felt the wetness. Plenty of people used disposables 30 years ago but they were more expensive so there was a bigger push to get kids out of nappies, to save money.
I read on MN from a nurse that she has noticed that very poor mums tend to have children who are toilet trained at an earlier age than the norm.
What young children are taught depends on what is important for their environment. So tying laces is not a skill kids need to master young.

Well, I would definitely like to save on nappy money myself! But I have yet to explain this piece of household economics to the small and cheeky personage snoring in the next room.

Have told her that when she goes into year 7 she will need shoes with laces rather than those Clarks ones with the velcro strap......

When I was at secondary school about 7 years ago, a lot of students still didn't wear lace-up shoes.

I was surprised to meet university students who had never come across the story of the Good Samaritan. But kids have always had lacunae in their knowledge. From the Seventies: I still remember our class being asked what 'UK' stood for and one of my classmates said 'Russia'. Another thought that Napoleon was one of our former Prime Ministers! My dad told me that as a kid he thought that being 'sent to Coventry' meant being sent to a convent. I always confused the words prism and prison.

30 years ago I met a woman who was at university who asked me whether Germany was on our side or our enemy during the Second World War.
TV back then used to regularly show war movies, so even from TV most people would have known this.

I remember a question in RE GCSE about what Jewish people were permitted to eat - one of the options was gammon. I got that wrong because I thought gammon was a fish (like salmon?) - I was vegetarian brought up by life long vegetarian parents, I had know idea it was pig! In fact I doubt my children would know either!

Gah ‘no’ idea - no sure where that came from!

I was in reception about 40 years ago and we all had buckles. I will confess that I couldn’t tie my shoelaces until I was about 11.

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

I think this is it. Children can cope with words they can relate to something, like cat, dog, mud, mat but words like and or but don’t really mean anything to them.

That yellow dandelions are the same plant as the fluffy white dandelions. Year 6.

I was an adult when I realised that... Took myself off to YouTube to watch a time-lapse of it.

LarryGreyson The boys won't have had. Buckle shoes were girls shoes.

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

But don't you ever take your dc to Summer (or Christmas) Fairs, Cake sales, jumble sales, book fairs, coffee mornings, etc.?
Don't they have pocket money?
Don't they have their own money to go in the sweet shop?
Or even go and get a loaf of bread for you? (depending on age)
Don't they have money to buy a birthday or Christmas present for you or for siblings ?

Even if you use a card for purchases in shops, my dc had used cash lots of times.

dermarie do you not think she will get given a hard time?

As a teacher I've encountered many of the things already mentioned, not understanding the concept of 'change' is always an interesting one.
Children are taught to tell the time using analogue clocks in just about every school year up to the end of the juniors. Why they then lose this skill is a mystery!
Lately I've been teaching young pupils who can't use a mouse or keyboard as they've only ever used a tablet. They spend ages poking the monitor, wondering why it's not working

I have a video cassette from the mid 90s where an aunt is telling her niece that she'll soon be able to tie up her own laces. The niece was 4 years old at the time, and the aunt worked in a primary school and had shoe-tying children of her own. My DS still avoids shoelaces wherever possible, and he's currently sitting his GCSEs. He still remembers how to tell the time on an analogue clock though, so I haven't failed him entirely.

iggly we have tried many times to teach DD! DS could do his laces by probably 5yo?

@MitziK Where did ALL the white dog shit go? It's all brown these days... 🤔🤷🏻‍♀️

dermarie do you not think she will get given a hard time?

Who will be given a hard time? Nobody I know got bullied for wearing buckle or velcro shoes in secondary school... The flat shoes with open top and just one velcro strap going across like a bar, was quite popular with girls. And just because you wear those shoes doesn't mean you can't do laces, maybe you just prefer them? Really, no one questioned it.

Sorry, I know who you mean! But the rest still stands, I really don't remember it being this big of a deal.

I was stunned the other day to realise my 7yo didn't know what lungs were. He confused them with the rib cage & thought they were for protecting the heart. I was brought up in a very medical family so I just assume people know these things! We've had a chat about it now & I've found him some pictures. He's currently home educated & next week's plan has now got lots of internal organ identification. No idea what age they'd be taught these things at school but I feel like he should at least have a basic knowledge of anatomy!

Some of this thread seems more about our schools or adult expectations being out of date rather than children not knowing “basic” things.

Analogue clocks, laces, counting change, dice, playing cards... suspect all these are on their way out and will be historic or “niche” items in a few decades. Rather than judging the children for not knowing about them maybe we should be questioning why we keep pushing the old ways rather than moving with the times.

mimipie I agree with you about some of those things. But analogue clocks are still widely used in public places. And laces are still used in shoes and boots. You may not need those skills at such a young age as you used to, but you still need the, And you still need to be able to deal with change.