Stop the World- I want to get off!

[john8pies]

I have just heard on the radio a report that 12% of British schoolchildren had "no idea" whose statue was on top of Nelson`s Column (er, isn`t there a slight clue in its name?!)

No doubt we will soon also hear that 97% of folk DON`T think the education system in this country has been `dumbed down` whilst the other 14% couldn`t do percentages properly either!!!



:-5 :-5 :-5

[Tombstone]

john8pies wrote: I have just heard on the radio a report that 12% of British schoolchildren had "no idea" whose statue was on top of Nelson`s Column (er, isn`t there a slight clue in its name?!)

No doubt we will soon also hear that 97% of folk DON`T think the education system in this country has been `dumbed down` whilst the other 14% couldn`t do percentages properly either!!!






Is this a trick post?

97%...whilst the other 14%... :wah:

[Suresh Gupta]

Did the world stop and could you get off?

[spot]

John, 12% of British schoolchildren are under eight years old. I don't think many five to seven year olds would recognize the trick in the question (that it carries its own answer) - they tend to trust their teachers more than that. Or is it that you think that a larger proportion of five to seven year olds would have heard of Nelson in the glorious old days, and that the old days were consequently better?

I imagine that if you primed these five to seven year olds with a dozen questions shaped with their own internal answer, so they saw the trick, then most of them would have answered "Nelson". The same goes for priming them on taking any form of test. Even SATs.

If you assume that some of the eight to eighteen year olds replied with "no idea" too, then at least some of the five to seven year olds saw the trick or at least guessed, which is fairly neat really.

Perhaps you could post again and say exactly why you think your fact highlights a problem at all.