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Anyone else feel insulted by the BBC news last night?

I was watching the BBC news last night and was really offended by a piece that basically implied that young people know absolutely nothing about the war. I swear that the BBC either tracked down the stupidest two boys they could find or paid them to pretend they knew nothing. This is actually how the first part of the interview starts:

"When do think the war started?"

"About 19 or 18" (um, what?)

"Do you know what the armistice was?"

"No"

"Do you know why we wear a poppy?"

"Haven't got a clue"

The report said that we don't get enough education about the WW1. I actually think that it is something that has been incredibly well taught throughout the national curriculum and I could easily have answered all the questions and shown a much more intelligent understanding than those boys did. The whole report angered me as it was saying that young people care more about computer games and tv than our history and one of the most horrific events of all time - which is just the kind of sterotypical image of young people that I hate. I do care and I have always been interested in learning about it. Even for those who didn't do History at GCSE/A Level, we were taught about the war in year 9 and at times throughout primary school. To make it look as though it is typical for young people to not even know when it started is completely unfair and if they talked to the majority of young people they would find the answers very different.

You can watch it here if you're interested:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fh69y/BBC_News_at_Ten_10112008/

just skip ahead to about 22 minutes in.

So does anyone else feel this article was terribly stereotypical of young people and really quite offensive to those of us that do make the effort learn about our past?

Reply 1

icapturethecastle

16

the bbc obviously didn't do their research, maybe some are ignorant but they should've checked out the sudent room first :biggrin:

tut tut

Reply 2

woofums

13

thats stupid. id be very suprised if they actually didnt know the answers. my 6 yr old brother knows the answers! I hate the way that its generalised to 'all young people' because majority isnt like that.

Reply 3

faber niger

17

Not really. They're probably not representative of students at a Girls' Grammar School such as that the OP goes to -- but they could certainly be representative of a huge swathe of the population.

Also, it doesn't generalise from them to the whole population of youngsters, it simply uses them as an example of ignorance. State-schooling can be pretty crappy, you know.

Reply 4

Tam_Diman

17

erm... I don't actually know what the armistice is... :s-smilie:

But I know the others, so, still, shame on them two...

EDIT: just wikipedia'd it, I know what it is, but it's not the word I would use...

Reply 5

RightSaidJames

16

Walking through Cardiff in the past few days, I've seen about a dozen students wearing poppies (including myself), out of what must have been hundreds. To be honest, I'm not all that surprised. Our school always made a point to observe Remembrance Day, I always went to the parade when I was in Scouts... but many people won't have put that much thought into it. Doing a poll of TSR would be misleading, mind; I expect a disproportionate amount of us would be fully aware of the issues behind Remembrance Day.

Reply 6

Botticello

20

Yes, I hate how this generation is patronised when there are some extremely intelligent people, often on here!

Reply 7

mnbhjk

A lot of people won't know that. If they did imply that all young people know nothing about the war than obviously they're wrong. But certainly lots of young people know nothing about the war.

Reply 8

sharpesparkle

16

Yes!
I studied both World Wars fairly extensively at school, my school always honoured Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day to quite a great extent (we had a chapel of the fallen- about a hundred pupils from my school died in each war). We went on a very touching trip to Belgium and I saw the yobbiest kids in my class with tears in their eyes at Menin Gate. I wear the poppy. My dad is a war veteran.

This sort of generalisation of teenagers/young people really angers me. We're not all idiots, and it seems that some adults forget they were intelligent teenagers at one point too.

I blame Harry Enfield, Little Britain and Catherine Tate! :P

Reply 9

34253

2

That is pretty crazy. I was attending Rememberance Sunday from about the age of 6 right through to 16. It was also the only history (apart from some Roman's stuff) that we really did in school upto about year 9. Then again, you have to wonder how long it has to be at the forefront of our countries curriculums and memories, it is almost 100 years ago afterall. It's quite hard for the younger generations to identify with and understand WWI in particular; when we were younger we might have lost a great grandparent in the war, but to our children it will be great great grand parents and all seminence will be lost. Time has a habit of doing that.

I think it should be remembered however. When we have forgotten the devistation of total war we will no doubt enter it again and then everybody loses.

Reply 10

01rudde

I do think it isn't taught very well - In my experience anyway. We were never told anything about WW1, although we did buy poppies and have a minutes silence. It was WW2 that was really focused on in my primary school...and secondary school come to think of it.

Reply 11

DisgruntledMoth

14

I watched that too, and felt similarly insulted.

My parents lapped it all up; "that's disgraceful!", "Children aren't what they used to be, are they?", "Education today...". Just, argh. The way the youth are portrayed in the media is nothing new, though. The boys didn't really seem to care all that much about their findings, either, adding another layer of shock to the Who do you think you are? and Antique's Roadshow audience, who can't possibly understand why anyone would find gallavanting through history even the slightest bit dull.

Reply 12

mfm89

I did indeed lay into the BBC, for managing to find the only young people that haven't had Rememberance Day assemblies shoved down them from Reception. Then they brought that old lady on as if to represent the outrage of a million Daily mailies, gasping at the lack of respect shown by youth today.

Reply 13

rockrunride

19

It should not be interpreted as ignorance on the level of every single young person. I think I had relatives in WWI myself but I've only got one grandparent left, who was a child when WWII started. I suppose I could ask her.

How are these two boys supposed to know if nobody's told them? Failure of the system tbh.
They're not psychic, and not going to automatically know everything.

Reply 14

73337

18

You do have to remember that, in general, most people are absolute morons.

Reply 15

34253

2

73337

You do have to remember that, in general, most people are absolute morons.

The irony being that if we all forget they will be the first into a war and the last out!

Reply 16

Advanced Subsidiary

18

i know all the answers to all those questions apart from the amarstice when I was like 9. Im 17 now and jezz.... the Bbc can be biatched sometimes.

Reply 17

faber niger

17

Advanced Subsidiary

i know all the answers to all those questions apart from the amarstice when I was like 9. Im 17 now and jezz.... the Bbc can be biatched sometimes.

It's baised. Well, it's not particularly -- but that's the right word. :yep:

Reply 18

Crimson Black

13

I like to think that, in these kinds of "show off the ignorance of the youth today" moments, far more old biddies have difficulty even remembering what day of the week it is, let alone expect every single youngster to know what Rememberance Day is all about. :smile:

It's acceptable for golden oldies to have a go at youngsters - they've been around a lot longer and have earned it. Just grin and bear it and one day you can complain about the youth of today yourself. :p:

"In my day, we had to use keyboards to type messages into forums. The youth of today are so lazy, scanning their thoughts into the holo-screen..." :ninja: