Is it really 'old fashioned' to teach basic knowledge, facts and figures?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....ll-TV-advert-dog.html

Today's school children may be brilliant when it comes to operating the latest electronic devices etc. but when it comes to all round general knowledge they sometimes tend to be lacking in many ways.

Are they not taught, or perhaps even their teachers are lacking in some way?

[jake-the-peg]

Yup

Facts and figures change

Pick up any 20 year old atlas and youll see that.

You need to teach skills, how to obtain information and anaylse it - especially in the internet world.

[cazzz1975]

define general knowledge..

my daughter is doing gcse's, she is learning a lot of core subjects that have been taught for years.

[cazzz1975]

she is actually getting a better quality education than I had at her age.

[DTCwordfan]

for once I am in agreement here with AOG and the Mail. A rare event indeed.

[jake-the-peg]

By the way this is a typically stupid mail story that comes up regularly

The data actually shows that when presented wit a questionaire X% of pupils will take the pi$$

[jno]

doesn't even seem to be a questionnaire involved, jake - just one "outspoken former teacher" saying something as vague as "I can't tell you the number of times I've had conversations with kids about Winston Churchill where they think he's "that dog" off the insurance advert from TV"

[andy-hughes]

You cannot blame the teachers all the time AOG, it's a typical knee-jerk reaction to asume that teachers are at fault for the massive gaps in education.

Teachers are given a National Cuuriculum to deliver, and extremely tight restrictions on the method by which it is delivered - the fault lies with succcessive governments who use education as a vote-catcher, while never seriously addressing the issues involved.

Because successive governments, and the media have combined in telling everyone how useless teachers are, we have a de-motivated profesion with experience staff leaving in droves. If the government and media tell everyone how useless teachers are, eventually everyone will believe it - government, media, pupils, and now, even the teachers themselves.

Try that aproach with your 'heroes' who fight unjustified wars under the same system, and see how long before people start leaving the armed forces.

[Answerprancer]

I agree with you on this (makes a change eh !)
I'm convinced that a number of our beloved leaders have had their tongues so far down the back of America's trousers that schools have been forced to adopt US styles - including this ludicrous letting go of basic grammar, spelling and punctuation.

[anotheoldgit]

/// The data actually shows that when presented wit a questionaire X% of pupils will take the pi$$ ///

Know that for absolute certainty do you Jake?

[ummmm]

Intelligence is not just about learning facts and figures...

[anotheoldgit]

andy-hughes

/// You cannot blame the teachers all the time AOG, it's a typical knee-jerk reaction to asume that teachers are at fault for the massive gaps in education.///

Perhaps your answer was a typical 'knee-jerk' reaction also, seeing that I only said:

"or perhaps even their teachers are lacking in some way"?

Please note the word "Perhaps".

[DrFilth]

it is not just kids that lack general knowledge

http://www.theanswerb...k/Question872232.html

[DTCwordfan]

And surprisingly I am agreement with you ummmm.

Wit the Hong Kong teaching which is all about cramming facts and figures in. I have mentioned this one before but several years ago I sat as an ex officio on a Swire's scholarship panel for potential candidates to Oxbridge, a really valuable scholarship akin to a Fulbright or Rhodes.

We had some 20 candidates, all with perfect As, and we really struggled for that very reason you mentioned, ummmm. Incredible knowledge and facts at their fingertips but could they reason, well some/ Could they put their own spin on the debate and bring leadership to the fore on it - what Oxbridge look for in a young scholar? The answer was a resounding and disappointing "No."

[andy-hughes]

Perhaps even their teachers are lacking in some way?

And perhaps they're not.

Better?

[dave50]

Does anyone know if there has ever been an experiment in which a school leaver of today has done an 'o' level paper of say 40 years ago and if so what was the result?

[ummmm]

Dave....there have been loads of comparison papers posted on the net.

[anotheoldgit]

ummmm

/// Intelligence is not just about learning facts and figures.///

Has anything been suggested otherwise?

Intelligence covers a wide number of things, general knowledge being just one, i.e. you need intelligence to realise it is dangerous to walk on a motorway, but you need general knowledge to know what a motorway is.

[DTCwordfan]

So what is your solution to this issue, AOG?