You are correct on all counts. The sad thing about this is the guy was probably patting himself on the back because he knew that pharaohs were Greek.

I was more surprised that someone did not know that the Egyptian culture was around at least 2,500 years before Greek culture!

It's been a long time since I was in school and I know that my grandson--who is in sixth grade--has apparently not had any history taught to him. This might change in higher grades and high school but somehow, I don't think that any history classes will focus in detail. Then, there is apathy on the part of students. When I was teaching a composition class on campus at the local community college quite some years ago, a young woman raised her hand and said (apropos of nothing) that she did NOT know why she had to take history classes and it was a WASTE of time. Before I could say anything, a much more astute student did an excellent job telling her why everyone should know about history. This young woman--who would be middle aged by now--is very likely working at a low-paying job because, as I remember, she also did not understand the necessity of knowing how to write well.

@Gwen_Wanderer Coming into Canada at 27 into Consulting Engineering, I was appalled at the writing ability of the university graduates joining the consultancy. Some were almost illiterate in English University graduate standards. Even the top engineers sometimes got me to check their letters, yet I had been a bit of a failure in my school English exams and had had to retake. I wonder how Canada compares with the USA.

@rogerbenham I have been teaching in higher education for over 20 years. I teach grad courses (MA) in British lit. The ignorance of many students is staggering. I get a lot of high school teachers as some states require that they get an MA to continue teaching. If these people are teaching high school students, then the lack of literary skills is not surprising.

I won't even go into the entry level writings courses I teach. At one school, the discussion boards have a program with analyzes their grade level writing skills. Some have as low as seventh grade and few have freshman college levels.

The local community college where I teach instituted the "right to fail" policy. Students take a test which recommends which level composition class they should take, but they are not required to take the lower level courses. This results in students whose skills are woeful. I teach lit there, but my lit students have much lower skills than they did 10 years ago.

The philosophy is to be less "harsh" in grading. I have been told at all three of my schools that I grade too harshly.

@Gwen_Wanderer The desire of the corporate world is that the employees be clever enough to operate the equipment but not clever enough to know that they are slaves. Employees who think are very dangerous and need to be weeded out. The system needs to recognise skills useful to itself but to suppressquestions. However elite students are useful and need guidance but encouragement. I was born elite and allowed to be elite but I was bound to suffer eventual boredom. Hence my wondering if I had opted for academia. I saw a bright student get his PhD, become a professor and become a complete bore, so maybe that could have happened but another got his PhD, become a lecturer and choose his family and I really liked them.

@rogerbenham Much of the education systems of the world's efforts, are devoted to teaching obsolete and pointless skills, not just because they are ultra conservative. But because of course, the students willingness to devote time and effort to useless activities is a good test of compliance. So that, especially ultra conservative schools, devote real effort to things like fine penmanship, and the least time to things like history or biology, which are increasingly needed to understand an ever more complex world. Because as you say, useful slaves not slaves with understanding.

@Fernapple

Didn't the geeks invent the triangle?

[i.imgflip.com]

@Polemicist If we dispute, we both have lost. But if we share, we both gain.

@rogerbenham I was born smart, but not "elite" or, at least, not in my understanding of the word. When I was bussed into town after going to a small rural school for five years, I (and my rural peers) were considered stupid by the town kids--and not just the kids. All seniors had to consult the advisor before graduation to focus on what we would do after graduation. I told the advisor that I wanted to go to college.

He looked at me and asked, "Have you considered beauty college?"

I told him I didn't want to cut hair but to go to the local community college.

He said, "Well, you have to take the ACT and have decent grades to do that."

I said, "I have taken the ACT and I made the honor roll every term in my junior and senior year."

Only then did he look at my records and his eyes bulged when he saw my scores and grades.

He judged me on where I lived. Nothing else, nothing more. He hadn't even bothered to look at my records.

@rogerbenham instructors no longer "weed out" students. They did when I was in school--even when I got an MA in 2001, people who couldn't make the grade were "weeded out" by their low grades. Now, grades are inflated. It is a a Catch-22 as we are told to not grade inflate, but not to grade "harshly."

Of course, employers are free to weed out the undesirables, but I think it is becoming more and more evident to them that schools are sending them people who lack a work ethic and lack of a grasp on just how, ahem, unintelligent they are. I can imagine some of my students who are passed along and who think that they are going to 1. Get a degree. 2. Get a degree from a school which employers will respect.

I have students who plan on being teachers when they can't read well enough to understand directions and can't write well enough to be understood.

@Gwen_Wanderer Yes well I was born into the British ruling class and there is little doubt in my mind that Durham University accepted me because of that as I found out my school exam results were way less than any of the others in my faculty that year. Interestingly I was already starting to reject my class (One of 6 who voted left to 434 voting right in a school election). However what university proved to me was that none of my elite schooling had been effective (for me) as basically I went from bottom to top in 3 years of university.
Luckily what I saw at university was that the British system of university entrance by exam results allowed people from local once coal mining villages to break through with the state paying their undergraduate cost and even post graduate costs. We all had our parents taking a means test with the minimum payment of 50 pounds a year which I got, which helped buy my books! Some collier lads got enough to weekly hit the pubs for the local Newcastle Brown Ale.
Shockingly perhaps (I do not know Ivy League universities) I paid 100 pounds tuition but my accomodation, my meals, maids cleaning our rooms all was free Durham is a collegiat university. To get admission one was interviewed by college (hall of residence) and faculty. In my college there were maybe 4 to 6 ruling class students out of 450 covering 3 years. The lowest working class students may have been up to 20. I had one such friend but I became friendly with rebel middle class. Some colleges had far more upper class as mine was the closest to the science departments.

@Gwen_Wanderer Yes allowing idiots into your universities must lower the quality of teaching. The "O" level exams (aged 16) and specialist "A: level exams determined whether one wouldget admission. Because it was all free, if you failed any year that was the end of university for you. Several of my upper crust 1st year friends got thrown out including David John Anthony Lowther A'Kempis De Courtney Musgrave, who introduced me to Balkan Sobranies. Thrown out despite all those Norman ancesters.