"I dunno, that happened before I was born"

[Flyer]

@Mean_Mr.Mustard

I recently expressed surprise at a young co-worker who had never heard of Watergate. Her defense, which she thought was entirely legitimate, was that she hadn’t even been born when it occurred.

This reminded me of a cruise ship trivia contest I was involved in a few years back. One team, composed of young 20-year-olds, complained that one of the categories (1960s music) had happened, yes, before they were born and thus was unfair. To my amazement the trivia girl agreed and removed that category from the contest.

To me, this is the lamest of excuses for being ignorant. It also implies the notion that nothing of significance is worth bothering with if it has not happened within one’s lifetime.

Just wanted to vent. Thankyouverymuch.
mmm

If you’re an average Doper, you’ll be horrified to learn that Rush Limbaugh agrees with you.

He once said on his show that most people’s historical frame of reference begins on the day that they were born.

[Johnny_L.A]

@solost

WWII? Before my time. Was that a precursor to the WWW?

In the mid-'80s a friend was chatting up a surfer girl. Politics came up, and my friend mentioned the war in Vietnam. The girl was like, ‘Is that the one Hitler was in?’

[Joey_P]

@Thudlow_Boink

The problem is that Watergate falls into that valley of being too recent to be history, too old to be current events.

How do people learn about Stuff That Happened? If it happened during their lifetime, they learn about it by living through it (watching the news, reading the papers, discussing it around the water cooler or on the internet). If it happened before they were born, they learn about it in history class. But if it happened within the lifetime of the people who set the curriculum and teach the classes, they don’t consider it history; they just think of it as common knowledge. (Plus, if the history class is arranged chronologically, they run out of time before they get to it.)

Agreed as well. I was born in 1980. Long after Watergate was old news. About all I know about it is hearing it mentioned, a little poking around on the internet to get a basic understanding and watching All The President’s Men. But, really, I just know the very basics of it. I don’t know the ins and outs of it anymore than I’d expect a 15 year old to know the major events that unfolded on 9/11.

[Cabin_Fever_1]

@Johnny_L.A

In the mid-'80s a friend was chatting up a surfer girl. Politics came up, and my friend mentioned the war in Vietnam. The girl was like, ‘Is that the one Hitler was in?’

:smack:

[Pantastic]

@Omar_Little

In other news, millennials successfully get History stricken from secondary education curriculum.

In still other news, boomers successfully get all of History except for 1960-1980 stricken from the secondary school curriculum :). Yes, Watergate was a historically significant event, but so was Roosevelt’s third term (it led to a constitutional amendment) and a host of other events that a random non-history buff might not be familiar with. I don’t think it’s exactly a coincidence that a trivia contest ditching 1960s music is what turned up in this rant either - I don’t think you’d get the same Boom-ing anger if it was 1940s music that they decided wasn’t a fun category for the players.

[Omega_Glory]

@Iggy

Exactly what I was about to post.

I grew up in the late 70’s to early 80’s. We always ran out of time in history class at the end of the WWII. I knew the Age of Discovery up to WWII quite well. But the Korean War, Vietname War, and Watergate not at all.

This is what I was going to say, too. A long time ago, I started a thread asking about something that happened to be connected to an important event that happened in the early 80s. The connection was obvious to some of the people who posted in the thread, but I had no idea, because I hadn’t lived through the event, or taken a history class that hadn’t run out of time somewhere around 1955, or had any reason to look into that event on my own. It’s not an excuse, but an explanation.

[Blaster_Master]

@Thudlow_Boink

The problem is that Watergate falls into that valley of being too recent to be history, too old to be current events.

I disagree. Admittedly, I graduated from high school in 2000, but I definitely recall studying Watergate in US history. Hell, we even studied more recent stuff like Iran/Contra, end of the Cold War, and even the first Gulf War, and while I was young enough to not really give a damn about the last part when it happened, I definitely remembered it and it was less than 10 years earlier.

But Watergate was 40 years ago; frankly, if it isn’t covered in a US History course, unless it’s only covering a section of US History, like Antebellum, Civil War to WW2, etc. then it just flat isn’t covering US History. It’s definitely a major point in modern US history and it’s important to understanding the current political landscape.

Today, I’d expect a US History class to cover 9/11 and at least the starts of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and there’s kids in high school today that weren’t alive when 9/11 happened either.

@Mean_Mr.Mustard

This reminded me of a cruise ship trivia contest I was involved in a few years back. One team, composed of young 20-year-olds, complained that one of the categories (1960s music) had happened, yes, before they were born and thus was unfair. To my amazement the trivia girl agreed and removed that category from the contest

I think it’s silly to not cover it, as there’s always going to be some knowledge not covered in a general trivia challenge. Would a group of 50+ people be able to disqualify a category on 2010’s music? Would a group of meat heads get to disqualify a category on sci-fi, or a gorup of nerds a category on sports?

At the same time, though, if one category favors a certain group, but the rest don’t, maybe it makes sense to get rid of it. That is,

[Omega_Glory]

I graduated the same year, and we never covered most of those things. Some of the courses would make it to the 50s or 60s before running out of time, others would cover the current events of the 90s, and the events of the 70s and 80s would fall through the cracks.

[Inner_Stickler]

Blaster Master, I think your high school history experience was anomalous. I graduated high school in 2007 and we never got past WWII.

I think a history curriculum that includes Watergate, Vietnam, Iran/Contra and the Cold War is a good idea but it’s not particularly helpful to blame the young person for not knowing something when there’s no reason for them to realize they never knew it. It’s always helpful to remember, as XKCD showed us, that every day 10,000 people are learning something for the first time that you feel is common knowledge.

[solost]

@Johnny_L.A

In the mid-'80s a friend was chatting up a surfer girl. Politics came up, and my friend mentioned the war in Vietnam. The girl was like, ‘Is that the one Hitler was in?’

Like, woah, dude.

[China_Guy]

@Frank

Well, sure, but I remain unconvinced that Watergate is one of these. It led to the only resignation of a U.S. President in the history of the country. I think that’s important history.

Not to mention “Watergate” has become jargon/shorthand/mainstream -suffix. I think Bengazi-gate, it’s cousin email-gate, Weiner-gate being some of the more recent. here’s a wiki list of various -gates

I get not knowing stuff before your time (you ignorant lazy whippersnapper get off my lawn), but I don’t think they get a pass on something that became part of American vocabulary.

[TriPolar]

@Inner_Stickler

Blaster Master, I think your high school history experience was anomalous. I graduated high school in 2007 and we never got past WWII.

I graduated high school in 1974 and we didn’t make it to WWII. I think my kids got a little exposure to the latter half of the 20th century. A lot of what I know about the 1940s and 1950s comes from popular culture. You would think WWII and the Korean War took up the entirety of two decades, and the 1950s were all about Fonzie. I don’t blame anyone for not knowing much about several decades that preceded their birth.

[jz78817]

simple. nothing important happened before I was born.

[JKellyMap]

@Small_Hen

It’s perfectly reasonable for someone to feel defensive when they don’t know something and someone else expresses surprise.

I teach human geography courses (with a lot of basic historical geography) to US undergraduates, at a university that’s okay but not top-of-the-line…so I have to stifle this very surprise about five times a day. I kid you not. Very often, I CAN’T stifle my surprise in time, so I have to follow up by saying something like “That’s okay, it’s not your fault…I just find it interesting to see what is and isn’t taught in high schools these days…” I’m not sure to what extent I’m being overly generous – some of this stuff MUST have been taught in their high schools, only they were too blasé to retain it (or to learn it to begin with).

[Doctor_Jackson]

[QUOTE=Missy2U;18837038…I have absolutely no idea what started Korea.[/QUOTE]

“K”, same as it does now

[Kimballkid]

It was those damn Kommunists.

[GusNSpot]

Old fart here:

I read books and talked to relatives and more importantly, listened to them.

I read books until about 2 years ago when my eyes went pear shaped. Mostly fiction, but I know a lot of history, but I did get to talk to a dinosaur once but I digress.

I was 53 before I got on the internet.

So, clueless people I meet, I must remember that depending on age, they have mostly played video games all their lives and if MTV did not show it, they do not know it.

Too max out my depression I watch the interviews, the ones who go to universities and ask questions of random students or the streets of the city and ask random people current affairs questions. :smack:

It makes me feel way down & then way up when I realize I am not as stupid as I am told I am.

Mostly it scares me. :eek:

[Richard_Pearse]

@Mean_Mr.Mustard

I recently expressed surprise at a young co-worker who had never heard of Watergate.

Don’t you mean watergategate?

[Chefguy]

@TriPolar

I graduated high school in 1974 and we didn’t make it to WWII. I think my kids got a little exposure to the latter half of the 20th century. A lot of what I know about the 1940s and 1950s comes from popular culture. You would think WWII and the Korean War took up the entirety of two decades, and the 1950s were all about Fonzie. I don’t blame anyone for not knowing much about several decades that preceded their birth.

I do. It’s ridiculously easy to get the comic version of historical events online. I understand someone perhaps not having an interest in studying about how we got to where we are, but not bothering to find out because it was “before I was born” is just willful ignorance, not to mention appallingly lazy.

[Inna_Minnit]

Two of my coworkers yesterday did not know who Cary Grant was. “Who is she?” Sigh…

I expect people to know stuff outside of their experience, because I always have. It comes from being curious and being a reader. I suspect we have a greater ratio of both on this MB.