Quarter of Brits think Churchill was myth

[Torplexed]

Interesting article on modern misconceptions. UKTV Gold television surveyed 3,000 people for this poll.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080204...historyoffbeat

C'mon! Biggles does exist. He posts here all the time. :p

But then this American thought King Arthur was a Roman who married a Briton who looked like Keira Knightley. Hooray for Hollywood.

[Skybird]

Oh, a king Arthur did exist for real, but he had nothing in common with the hero of the saga. In fact it seems he was a ruffian not any better than most other local rulers of that time.

Britain has a high immigration, I wonder if different background of people being questioned could explain it.

On the other hand, we had polls amongst school students in Germany recently, revealing misconceptions like Merkel not being recognised as chancellor, USA originally having raised the Berlin wall, and Helmut Kohl having been the last head of state of the GDR - stuff like this. Don't remember the exact numbers, though, but I think it was around one quarter to one third.

But they all knew the top ten of the handy ring tone charts. Hisotry lessons have been find to be too tough and demanding, so we have started an experiment that replaces history books - with a comic on the Nazi era. There is always a way to raise the mean value of school notes again - even if it means to lower the standard. Soon our students will shine with top notes in international comparison again. Just don't ask them questions.

[sonar732]

As someone who was studying to be a secondary history teacher, this makes me depressed. Granted, when I first told my counselor my degree plans...she told me I was nuts because the history side of teaching was overpopulated.

It's all a matter of passion in what you teach. In my history based study groups, my peers thought that I would make a great history teacher because my passion showed in how I came to my conclusions about our projects or text we were reading. Falls along the line of salesman...if you don't believe in your product, don't sell it. Well, I was all about selling my product to make sure that we teach our kids that we can't have a future until we look into the past.

[Skybird]

Who needs history lessons when we have this:

http://www.myvideo.de/watch/3174503

It's a popular top hit over here currently.

Send it to Osama. Maybe he becomes tame, then.

P.S. And this was the top one hit over here a year ago or so (click one of the links in the list)
http://www.pixel7.de/Schnappi.html

Germany. Nation of thinkers and poets, cultural superpower of the past.

Meanwhile my hometown, declared world capital of culture one year ago, still fights - since years - wether it should built it's first dedicated concert hall to finally attract international high callibre artists in the world of cassical music (local classical music scene currently is third-class province format only, if even that), or go along with the Greens' and SPD's demand not to be so elitist and burguois and leaving the ground free for a three-times-a-yeary fair to please the crowds.

[Oberon]

*Monocle* *Chokes on tea.*

"Churchill! Myth?!?!? Let me at them! Just let me at them!!"

[StdDev]

Oh dear..

[antikristuseke]

wait, what? HOW?

[stabiz]

Yeah, ignorance is the new plague. I saw a video of some australians interviewing americans about the war in Iraq, and several pointed to Australia on the map when asked where Iraq was.

[Letum]

"UKTV Gold television surveyed"

Thats all I need to know.

I am suprised UKTV viewers did that well!

[sonar732]

Originally Posted by stabiz

Yeah, ignorance is the new plague. I saw a video of some australians interviewing americans about the war in Iraq, and several pointed to Australia on the map when asked where Iraq was.

Reminds me of Jaywalking with Jay Leno...some of the responses he gets are down right sad.

[Tchocky]

UKTV Gold, don't they show Dad's Army anymore?

[Letum]

Originally Posted by Tchocky

UKTV Gold, don't they show Dad's Army anymore?

UKTV Gold viewers, do they still show brain activity?

[badhat17]

Quite a few probably thought they were asking about the dog.

[STEED]

while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.

He is me, click the link in my sig to Subsimulations and join up today.

[baggygreen]

Originally Posted by stabiz

Yeah, ignorance is the new plague. I saw a video of some australians interviewing americans about the war in Iraq, and several pointed to Australia on the map when asked where Iraq was.

That video was a bit of a setup though. The maps were labelled incorrectly on purpose, and the only clips shown were those where the interviewees took the bait. Bloody depressing though, that there were so many who didnt have a bloody clue!