When I’m done reviewing for a math test, I like to spend about 4-5 minutes asking some “bonus” questions from another subject. I teach 6th grade at an “excellent rated” school district. The first question today was:
“Everyone knows that George Washington was our first president, but who knows our second president?”
Answer #1: George Washington Jr.
Answer #2: Thomas Edison
Answer #3: Abraham Lincoln
Answer #4: Ben Franklin
Answer #5: Thomas Jefferson–now we’re getting somewhere!
That was it. No one else had a guess.
Question #2:
“What was the first permanent settlement in the U.S.?”
Answer #1: Plymouth Rock
Answer #2: The Pilgrims–seriously.
Answer #3: Jamestown!
Question #3:
“Abraham Lincoln delivered a very famous speech. Name it.”
Answer #1: The Constitution
Answer #2: The Emancipation Proclamation
No more guesses after that.
Last question: (Disclaimer–The school I teach at is in a small town about 12 miles away from Lancaster, OH–the birthplace of William Sherman.)
“What general lead a famous march through the South and to the sea during the Civil War, burning most of what was in his path?”
Answer #1: George Washington
Answer #2: John Adams–at least they were paying attention?
Answer #3: Grant
At this point I gave them the hint that he was from Lancaster, and that they all had visited his birthplace in the 4th grade.
I have to admit that some of the wrong answers were funny–especially from an adult viewpoint. I mean, George Washington Jr. is funny because George Washington, Father of our Country, didn’t have biological children-- although Martha did (widowed before marrying George).
And the Emancipation Proclaimation is famously associated with Lincoln, and I’m not sure that it is reasonable to expect them to know about the Gettysburg Address.
Did you read the recent thread in IMHO about history? (Question for Parents of Schoolchildren about History) Admittedly, the child whose lack of knowledge inspired the question is younger than the ones you teach.
But still, combine youthful obliviousness, with why are you asking history questions in math class, I’m not sure it’s suprising.
I don’t get it. Maybe I’m just wired differently but I loved history (still do!). And apparently its rubbed off on my son.
At our annual Boy Scout Troop Holiday Party Monday night, one of the fathers came up with a trivia list of about 30 questions and those Scouts who got a question correct got a prize (nerf footballs, playing cards, etc.).
One of the questions he asked was, “Who are the only two U.S. President’s that were impeached?”
Hands shot up.
“Nixon and… uh… Washington?” was the first answer. Wrongo.
Immediately all but a few hands disappeared, “One of the Roosevelts?” was the next try.
Finally, after a few more attempts, my son was called upon.
“Andrew Jackson and Bill Clinton.”
I couldn’t have been more proud. On our drive home I told him so and asked him where he learned that factoid. He said he knows a lot of that stuff from all of my “blathering.” That’s the word he used – blathering.
Then he said he thought that if he had gotten it wrong he knew he’d have had to listen to me tell the whole story about how Johnson escaped the wrath of the Democrats by 1 vote and that he didn’t want to here that story again.
Smart kid he. Maybe today I’ll regale him about how McClellan and Army of the Potomic’s inactivity doomed the Peninsula Campaign to failure.
A rather Anglocentric viewpoint – even if you discount the fact that there were probably several long-established communities founded by various Indian tribes, I’d have to say that St. Augustine is a better candidate than Jamestown.
ETA: ChiefScott, you may wish to edit your reply – specifically the “Andrew Jackson” reference (though you did correctly identify the impeached 19th-century president as “Johnson” later in your post).
Not always history. Sometimes Science, sometimes Geography, and so on. I want them to see that I value knowledge in general, not just mathematical knowledge.
I should have included in my question that I asked specifically for an English settlement.
That’s fair, and a point of view I admire in principle. But in practice, people compartmentalize, and kids especially compartmentalize. So it’s not impossible that the same set of kids asked the same questions or similar ones would have come up with different answers under other circumstnaces. It’s possible that the different answers would not be better ones but sometimes even intelligent people don’t come up with the right answers to questions immediately.
I had a math teacher in HS that did this, and I hated it. Actually, he was a bit worse. His extra credit questions were about fishing and football. Background - I’m very good at math and only so-so at memorizing history facts (or any memorization). It would bug the hell out of me if I knew that another student was getting a better score in a math class, because they knew history, when I didn’t get a better score in history because I loved math.
These weren’t actual bonus test questions, just questions I asked at the end of the review game. I mentioned that in the OP. We only have these review games about twice a month, and as I said–I only ask the questions for about the last 5 minutes of the game.
