Adolf Hitler was a German football coach, say one in 20 children. (college, schools)

[John1960]

And one in six youngsters said they thought Auschwitz was a Second World War theme park while one in 20 said the Holocaust was a celebration at the end of the war.

The survey for a veterans' charity also found one in 10 thought the SS stood for Enid Blyton's Secret Seven, and one in 12 believed the Blitz was a European clean-up operation following the Second World War.

Adolf Hitler was a German football coach, say one in 20 children - Telegraph

[golfgal]

And everyone says that European schools are so much better then the US schools.

[Ivorytickler]

It's not just history that has issues like this. I don't remember the actual numbers but a, staggering, number of adults think we have seasons beause the earth is closer to the sun in the summer. And that water swirls down the drain one way in one hemisphere and the other in the other due to the coriolis effect...and any of a hundred other wrong science "facts" floating around out there. I remember watching a video in college where they asked, basic, science questions of college grads and most of them got most of them wrong.

We have this idea, in the united states, that if it doesn't pertain directely to me getting the job I want, I don't need to know it so we have a lot of people walking around who are really stupid in anything except what they do for a living. We are very lazy when it comes to our educations. Often people are only willing to do and only see value in learning that which directly applicable to them getting a job.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Ivorytickler

It's not just history that has issues like this. I don't remember the actual numbers but a, staggering, number of adults think we have seasons beause the earth is closer to the sun in the summer. And that water swirls down the drain one way in one hemisphere and the other in the other due to the coriolis effect...and any of a hundred other wrong science "facts" floating around out there. I remember watching a video in college where they asked, basic, science questions of college grads and most of them got most of them wrong.

We have this idea, in the united states, that if it doesn't pertain directely to me getting the job I want, I don't need to know it so we have a lot of people walking around who are really stupid in anything except what they do for a living. We are very lazy when it comes to our educations. Often people are only willing to do and only see value in learning that which directly applicable to them getting a job.

This survey was done in the UK.

[LauraC]

I have often pondered if the water in my toilet moved in the other direction how our lives would change. Mostly, that happens when I'm cleaning it or I'm sitting under an apple tree contemplating gravity. Is it okay to know such things and not talk about them? I'm contemplating that, too.

History ignorance is appalling because repeating mistakes and not repeating successes is ineffective, inefficient and pretty much ticks me off when life altering bad events could have been avoided.

[Dr. Foosball]

As someone who works with school-age children, I am happy to hear it is only one in twenty.

Look around. There are tons of ignorant people and those people are making babies.

[Kele]

It's appalling to see that those statistics come from a country that was so profoundly affected by WWII in every way.....

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by golfgal

This survey was done in the UK.

The one I'm thinking of was done in the US. They took a camera and attended college graduations and selected random graduates (standing in cap and gown) to answer a set of questions. I remember that one of the schools was a famous one out east but I can't remember which one it was. This was shown in my science methods class in grad school. It was an eye opener.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by Dr. Foosball

As someone who works with school-age children, I am happy to hear it is only one in twenty.

Look around. There are tons of ignorant people and those people are making babies.

I think we'd do the human race a favor if there was a parenting test you had to take before you could breed. Not only do the ignorant have kids, they seem to have a lot of kids.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by LauraC

I have often pondered if the water in my toilet moved in the other direction how our lives would change. Mostly, that happens when I'm cleaning it or I'm sitting under an apple tree contemplating gravity. Is it okay to know such things and not talk about them? I'm contemplating that, too.

History ignorance is appalling because repeating mistakes and not repeating successes is ineffective, inefficient and pretty much ticks me off when life altering bad events could have been avoided.

Well said. History is one thing we need to know. I have students and parents alike who get upset that I test kids on science history. I get "What does that have to do with doing chemistry?" and "Why do we need to know THIS stuff?".

People wonder why education is dismal here. It's what parents and students keep demanding. They only want their precious child to have to learn just what they need so they can get the best grade possible (grades are all that matter not real learning). We're pushing them too hard if we try to actually turn them into educated people.

As far as the water in your toilet and which way is swirls, it's irrelevent but knowing that the coriolis effect is a large scale effect is not. There's a basic logic flaw in taking something that operates on things the size of hurricanes and ASSuming it applies to your toilet. There's a, definite, failure WRT being able to apply what was learned and THAT does matter.