Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Grinders and Gripers Coffee Shop -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Savant who wrote (4041)	10/29/2000 10:46:29 PM
From: Apex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4201

...the brits are gonna love this one: ====== Poll finds young Brits 'dumber' than oldsters By JOHN EZARD The Guardian LONDON -- Young 18- to 24-year-old British adults are measurably "dumber" than older age groups, according to a special survey for the Guardian newspaper. British youth emerge consistently as knowing less - sometimes far less - than older people about many of the main events and personalities of British history and culture. Fewer than a third of them can name Winston Churchill, Britain's war-time hero, as a prime minister who served before 1945. Last night, after studying the survey results, the country's culture secretary, Chris Smith, said: "I fear it may represent a slipping of knowledge. They do clearly know about other things such as Internet search engines and rock music. But the fundamentals of what I would call cultural literacy are sadly missing for too many of them. I hope the trend can be reversed." The schools minister, Jacqui Smith, said: "There are worrying gaps in the education of too many young adults." Only 6 percent of young adult Brits can name David Lloyd George, architect of the welfare state, and only 8 percent Neville Chamberlain, architect of the Munich agreement with Hitler. Ninety-three percent do not know William Caxton was the father of printing and that John Milton wrote "Paradise Lost." Ninety percent cannot identify 1815 as the year of the battle of Waterloo. Some 84 percent and 77 percent, respectively, do not know what the Domesday Book or the Magna Carta were. Many results appear to point to a progressive breakdown in the transmission of historical and cultural facts between the six generations questioned for the survey. This breakdown - over a period when educational qualifications have greatly improved on paper -was acute if the events were more than half a century old. The age group that emerged as most knowledgeable was 45- to 54-year-olds, who began their schooling under the post-1945 grammar school/secondary modern school system and finished it as comprehensive schooling was starting to become widespread. This group came top answering 19 of the 40 questions. People over 65, whose education began when rote learning was more common, scored well on some answers but came top on only six. Young adults were top on five questions - all about pop culture or the Internet. (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service. For more Guardian news go to guardian.co.uk