Dumb Britain?

Same in my family - politics were often discussed, and we were also encourged to read the great classics of literature. I regret to say that one of my grandsons has gone over to the dark side politically, but I am hoping he will grow out of it.

I think every country has it's fair share of dummies, and sometimes they are unfortunately running the country. I believe George "doubleya" allegedly said the French don't have a word for entrepreneur and then I think there was a vice president, might have been Dan Quayle, but not absolutely sure when visiting a Latin American country apologised for not speaking Latin, like they don't have enough Hispanics in America to know what language they would speak!!! maybe he was tongue in cheek, but you never know. An Australian I know was travelling around America when somewhere in the back of beyond she was asked where she came from and she said Australia, where the questioner, an American girl replied OMG you speak fantastic English!!!! My friend, "thanks but it's not that difficult because English is what we speak there" American girl "oh I thought it was German" my friend "no that's Austria" American girl "gee I didn't know that"

I can remember being at a quiz night at our works social club a good few years ago now, one question was, who wrote Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star? The table next to us came up with Little Jimmy Osmond. Another question was, who wrote The Peer Gynt Suite? Their answer, Peer Gynt!

I used to snigger at Americans, such as the one who told my sailor brother that he spoke 'Real good English for a foreigner', but now I know the British can produce at least their fair share of very ignorant people.
Dan Quayle was the one who told a child who was spelling 'potato' that he had left the 'e' off the end. However, Sarah Palin took the prize for stupidity.

Sarah Paiin added a whole new dimension to stupidity.

Oh yeah Sarah Palin forgot her gaffe "our allies, North Korea" and I think there were a few more from her as well. Scary woman! Americans (some) can be parochial. I don't think Sarah Palin did geography at school, someone should buy her an atlas. Don't forget how many Americans have never had a passport, I guess a lot of them feel that it's all there everything you could want to see is in America. Most of us in the UK have been abroad these days.

I had a cleaner who was going on holiday to Benidorm. I said, 'Oh, Spain, have you been before?' She replied, 'I don't know, we just book through the agent'. She was a fund of very funny anecdotes and great company, but almost totally uneducated.

Stupidity and ignorance aren't the same thing. I don't consider myself stupid because I couldn't answer any quiz question on Eastenders. In fact, I don't think I'm stupid even though the list of topics I know nothing about is much greater than the list of topics I think I do know about. What surprises and shocks me is lack of curiosity on the part of the young.

Perhaps they are just curious about different things from us? Jeremy Paxman says he finds the students on University Challenge astonishingly knowledgeable on many subjects, but incredibly ignorant on others.

There's a tv prog called Coach Trip, I'm sure some of you will have seen it where couples get on at various points in Europe and then they all get the chance to vote each other off. On the last one I think a mother and daughter got on and were ejected quite soon. The mother was amazingly ignorant although they were travelling around Europe she had no idea where the different countries were located, or anything about them. Didn't even know where the UK was in proximity to mainland Europe, when someone took her to task about this, she said "I don't need to know where it is, that's the pilot/driver's job"

(This is specifically about young people - I still can't believe the stories about TV quiz shows...)

What the young have, and we didn't, (and some of us still haven't discovered) is the ability to access any information, at any time, anywhere. And they don't need to remember it, and stuff their heads full of useless trivia, because it is instantly accessible.

So - are they "dumb" (hate that word) because they don't know, or bright and up to date because they know how to find out?

Theseus and our team recently won a quiz hands down, and it was fun, but I still think we should be wary of instantly castigating the young.

I went on Fifteen-to-One as a contestant back in 1997, egged on by family as I always did quite well in TV quizzes at home. Ashamed to say I was the second one to go off! I got through the first round when one person was out, but was the first out in the next round. Ironically, I knew the answers to almost everyone else`s questions. William G. Stewart had an idiot board to read off, even though he said the same things on every show. And it took just over 2 hours to record a 30 minute programme.

Ariadne, that's quite a frightening thought - that young people have minds empty of knowledge because they don't need to remember anything!

According to Mr absent, I once got very close to a million pounds on Who Wants to be a Millionaire in my sleep – we had a television in our bedroom in those days. I was propped up with my pillows and fell asleep somewhere during round one. However, I moved into a deeper level of sleep somewhere before the end of the show and stopped answering, so we shall never know.

If they have to remember a script for a school play, they usually manage pretty well, Ariadne. My 8-year-old GS has a fly-paper memory for almost everything except where he has left his shoes/games kit/ bike...

How about getting a GN team together for Eggheads?

I'm up for it!

If you had tried to run a business in France you would know that George Bush was closer to the truth than he knew when he said there was no word for entrepreneur.

I've also heard that George Bush was correct in this case.

The fact that the young can access any information any time does not let them off learning some basic facts. Then they can then question the truth of the information they receive via these channels.

It is a common fallacy that looking at amusing moving pictures on a screen is learning. It is not the optimal process for the brain. To get the stuff into your long term memory you have to do more that.

And it either drifts off into the ether or gets buried under mounds of other stuff.

On Breakaway today: Who married Catherine Hogarth in 1836? Answer: Henry Vlll

Lilygran What the Dickens are these young people coming to?

Ha Ha absent. We were in tears of laughter despair when they were informed their answer was three hundred years out.

So, judging by the fact that my post has been blanked the lack of response, no one else is up for a GN Egghead Team?

Shame

I might be interested. But I'm not an egghead.