February 26, 2008

Teens losing touch with common cultural and historical references

Big Brother. McCarthyism. The patience of Job.

Don't count on your typical teenager to nod knowingly the next time you drop a reference to any of these. A study out today finds that about half of 17-year-olds can't identify the books or historical events associated with them.

Read more.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks man, this was a particularly good article.

Regarding "Big Brother. McCarthyism. The patience of Job", I learned about McCarthyism in school, but never was assigned to read 1984 in any class (nor do I remember any teacher suggesting that I do), and reading the Bible in school would've been running the risk of academic excommunication. In fact, most of my cultural education came outside of school, primarily from my folks. So I have to wonder how much schools are really to blame, and how much responsibility lie on the parent's shoulders.