Is this clip an indictment of our education system?

[HomerJS]

US Open post match presser runner up Laylah Fernandez 19 years old was asked about 9/11. Her response was she remembered watching a movie about 9/11. She asked her parents yesterday what happened and said she was shocked.

My first thought, why weren't you taught this in school? She's just fining out details at 19 years old?

 

[Brainonska511]

Why is that an indictment of the educational system? In all of my schooling, modern US history, effectively from WWII to the present, was covered in the last week of school, so not exactly a lot of time devoted to it. But mainly, I think points A-C apply below in this case

Also:
a) She is from Canada, so the curriculum for history classes is likely to be different
b) She was born after the event, so she probably wouldn't have a strong temporal connection
c) She's at a press conference at the age of 19 - maybe some people are not great at thinking on their feet in the spotlight

 

[cytg111]

Yea that is weird.. every single country that has/had boots on the ground in Afghanistan needs to at least explain the chain of events. Total failure otherwise.

 

[sdifox]

If anything she should have heard about the people that landed in Gander. Hell there is a musical about it. Canadians are great at tooting their own horns.

Also, most pro athletes don't do a lot of school.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I don't see this as an appropriate question for a tennis match. Not everything needs to be politicized.

 

[sdifox]

I don't see this as an appropriate question for a tennis match. Not everything needs to be politicized.

US Open, on 20th anniversary of 9/11, it's a fair question. Not really political.

 

[pmv]

I find it hard to decide about the OP question. Had me trying to think of big events that happened a year before I was born, and then trying to remember if I would have known about them at 19. The thing is though, I'm not someone who spent all my time single-mindedly getting really really good at tennis.

But I don't think it's to do with the education system - there's a vast amount of history and you can't learn all of it in school, much of it you will just pick up from pop culture and general reading.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i'd say A&W restaurants' failed experiment with the 1/3lb burger is more an indictment than this

 

[Indus]

Canadians don't really care what America does as long as its not being invaded by America.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Canadians don't really care what America does as long as its not being invaded by America.

They stand ready ....

 

[Indus]

Yeah you gotta be really careful of those sneaky Canadians..

 

[Pohemi]

Meh. It was a tragic day of events, but just that - a one day event. I learned about things that happened prior to me being born, but they were mainly things that happened here in the US, not in Canada or elsewhere. And few of them were acute, one-day events.

It didn't occur in her own country, and it's not necessarily discussed in history class in her country. I would think it would be, but I can't assume it was, and obviously only as a passing note if it did get covered.

I understand many people being so focused on it during the 20th anniversary day, but I don't think it should have been asked of her, in that setting.

 

[HomerJS]

I don't see this as an appropriate question for a tennis match. Not everything needs to be politicized.

Any other location, any other date I would agree. I was just wondering how a recent high school grad could not know about 9/11. Even if they are Canadian

 

[Zorba]

Meh. It was a tragic day of events, but just that - a one day event. I learned about things that happened prior to me being born, but they were mainly things that happened here in the US, not in Canada or elsewhere. And few of them were acute, one-day events.

It didn't occur in her own country, and it's not necessarily discussed in history class in her country. I would think it would be, but I can't assume it was, and obviously only as a passing note if it did get covered.

I understand many people being so focused on it during the 20th anniversary day, but I don't think it should have been asked of her, in that setting.

I agree with this. What should really be studied is the massive fallout and over reaction to 9/11, not the event itself. Further, though, modern American history gets basically zero coverage in US schools, why should other countries get it?

Nearly all of my modern history I learned from History Channel, PBS, and Discovery channel. Good luck finding anything educational on two of those any more.

I'm sure the vast majority of Americans couldn't tell you what happened on April 19th, 1995, June 6th, 1944, or April 20th, 1999, etc. Further, I wouldn't be surprised if 40+% of Americans that were at least teenagers on 9/11 couldn't tell you many real details and completely omitted the Pentagon and United 93. People suck at history, and we suck at teaching it as well.

 

[pmv]

I'm sure the vast majority of Americans couldn't tell you what happened on April 20th, 1995, June 6th, 1944, or April 20th, 1999, etc. Further, I wouldn't be surprised if 40+% of Americans that were at least teenagers on 9/11 couldn't tell you many real details and completely omitted the Pentagon and United 93. People suck at history, and we suck at teaching it as well.

More pertinently, I doubt many Americans could tell you much about the other 9/11

 

[Zorba]

More pertinently, I doubt many Americans could tell you much about the other 9/11

I couldn't tell you a single important day in Canadian history, truthfully. Or Chilean for that matter.

 

[sdifox]

I couldn't tell you a single important day in Canadian history, truthfully. Or Chilean for that matter.

Come on, you should at least know New Years and Christmas!

 

[ch33zw1z]

Canadian Thanksgiving, like first weekend of October or something?

WRT OP: whatever, now she knows and her response was fine. I was barely taught American history and had no civic classes at all.

 

[sdifox]

Canadians don't really care what America does as long as its not being invaded by America.

Au contraire, mon ami. Canadians care alot about America. We are directly impacted by everything you guys do.

 

[Zorba]

Come on, you should at least know New Years and Christmas!

And Boxing Day .

 

[Stokely]

I don't remember my school covering, say, the Vietnam War, and that was actually going on while I was in elementary school (yep, I'm old as dirt). Granted, I'm sure curriculums could be updated faster than they were back then, but mostly we covered the revolutionary war and other old-timey stuff.

Can't say I blame schools if they wanted to avoid it. You'd have aggressive parents all up in the teachers' faces even more than they already are if you covered controversial recent events. Not that 9/11 itself was all that controversial, though the resulting Iraq bullshit invasion sure was (or should be).

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

My first thought, why weren't you taught this in school? She's just fining out details at 19 years old?

Can we go back to spelling? Or at least proofreading and editing?

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Going to school in the 80's/90's, we were in the final throes of the cold war (late 80's, we still had hide-under-the-desk drills), and the legacy of Vietnam and Korea close enough behind us that it should have been relevant. Wasn't taught a lick about any of the three.

Learned a whole lot about the goddamned Alamo though. I made paper mache Alamos in at least two different classes at two different ages. Fuck that stupid building.

 

[Brainonska511]

Learned a whole lot about the goddamned Alamo though. I made paper mache Alamos in at least two different classes at two different ages. Fuck that stupid building.

Nothing like glorifying a revolution fought so that white people could expand the institution of slavery into new territory.

 

[HomerJS]

Can we go back to spelling? Or at least proofreading and editing?

You just outed the shitty typist. Nice job