Buzz Lightyear first man to walk on moon, children believe

[Ksandra]

Inappropriate.

I'm sorry ;_; I was young and innocent.

[Sylvrdragon]

The survey is probably fine, but the article about the survey is retarded. It was almost certainly multiple choice, and there was probably no option for "I don't know". As a result, kids who don't know some of this stuff (which doesn't bother me) are forced to pick ridiculous answers, and then dishonest and/or stupid journalists are going to exaggerate the meaning of those ridiculous answers.

[isladar]

so why wouldn't half the schools out there work off of that? I mean whats cooler to a kid that watching fucking fire roar out of the back of a NASA labeled projectile as it disappears into the sky?

Probably because way too many of us watched the Challenger launch live.

[Mellema]

Ya that's correct it's one the earliest and widest known case of domestic terrorism (well attempted.) I'm not surprised though that a lot of kids don't know shit about it since it's a UK thing.

It was a UK survey. Doubt many young kids in the US have ever heard of the Daleks or Dr Who.

[Mizango]

Probably because way too many of us watched the Challenger launch live.

I remember that day

[isladar]

I remember that day

YES! YES! THIS IS AWESOME! WATCHING TV IN SCHOOL! YES IT'S A FUCKING ROCKET THIS SHIT IS SO FUCKIoh god.

[Byrthnoth]

The survey is probably fine, but the article about the survey is retarded. It was almost certainly multiple choice, and there was probably no option for "I don't know". As a result, kids who don't know some of this stuff (which doesn't bother me) are forced to pick ridiculous answers, and then dishonest and/or stupid journalists are going to exaggerate the meaning of those ridiculous answers.

The lack of an "I don't know" response is poor survey design. Giving a written survey to 6-12 year olds wouldn't be great experimental design either. The younger part of their sample probably can't even read the names and has almost certainly not had a chance to connect them up with the words/people they've heard about.

Exposure to information = familiarity with information = likelihood of choosing it in an unsure situation

The media in Britain probably talks and writes a lot more about Cheryl Cole's malaria than Neil Armstrong. As such, kids were exposed to it dramatically more and when given a list of things they recognized, they picked the most familiar answer. I mean, these kids have probably been exposed to the idea of Neil Armstrong (at most) once in their 0-5 years of being literate, but Buzz Lightyear has been all over the TVs these kids are probably glued to. Buzz is a complete concept. They know what he looks like, how his name is written, and that he is a spaceman. I can't even pretend to act surprised. This isn't a remotely shocking or unexpected finding.

[Chun Liroy]

DAHHHHLICKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSss

[Woozie]

You mean the Death Star isn't real? FU

It's real, it's just not the furthest from the sun (Arrakis is further).

[Sylvrdragon]

Maybe the kids just confused Buzz Lightyear with Buzz Aldrin! He was only behind Neil by like 5 seconds!

Actually, it's very possible that they HAD heard the name Buzz Aldrin before, and that, coupled with their familiarity with Buzz Lightyear could very well explain this particular question. Maybe they thought the Toy Story character was named for the actual astronaut.

[Eliseos]

YES! YES! THIS IS AWESOME! WATCHING TV IN SCHOOL! YES IT'S A FUCKING ROCKET THIS SHIT IS SO FUCKIoh god.

"Mommy, I don't want to be an astronaut anymore."

The coolest science thing I remember my school doing in elementary school was going outside to watch an eclipse (with proper protection I think). My class drew the short straw since we didn't have enough glasses to go around and we had to stay inside

[JigglyJam]

GREAT SCOTT!
http://mmomfg.com/wp-content/uploads...9/docbrown.jpg

[Kerberoz]

I'd say at least 1 in 5 kids will pick the "funny" answer when they know they're not being graded.

[Akiyama]

when I was in first grade I knew who every my little pony and care bears was, but fuck if I knew specifics of history outside of doing a play on Lincoln. This is really not that surprising nor different than when we were young.

When I was in first grade, I knew who Neil Armstrong was, I knew who Albert Einstein was, I knew a lot of the former presidents, and so on. Maybe you just went to a retarded school. Or maybe I was a nerd

[Rhyis.]

It's real, it's just not the furthest from the sun (Arrakis is further).

Bless the Maker and His Water.

[Drex]

20% of kids = most of them? lol

oh no only about 87% of british kids know what the leader of a foreign country looks like, oh wait that's a pretty good number if you ask me. compare to american kids who could identify foreign leaders. further, honestly, who cares what 1 in 20 school children think? i'm surprised more of them aren't that stupid to be honest. probably some little trolls in the bunch skewing the numbers. 5% is pretty small, all things considered.

compare to the number of adults who think obama is muslim, or believe in invisible space daddy who wants us all to burn for eternity. at least little kids haven't been around long enough to know better, fuck.

this just in: 5% of little kids don't know shit yet! more at 11! and how your diet could be killing you, at the top of the hour. but first, american idol results from last night!

[Kohan]

I'd say at least 1 in 5 kids will pick the "funny" answer when they know they're not being graded.

You overestimate a child's sense of humor.

Many children have a natural inclination to be honest. If they're lacking in confidence (which is all too common, what with the constant pressure to "be the best"), and they don't know the answer to something, they may lie, choosing a false answer and defending it with as much spirit as they can. In cases like those, they may never confess that they didn't know, as the most stubborn will persist even in the face of evidence.

Because of this, it really doesn't matter if they were multiple choice questions and had an "I don't know" selection or not. Not knowing isn't much different than being mistaken, and I'd propose that the average child would be far more embarrassed to pick "I don't know" than they would to guess at a completely wrong answer.

With the "try your best" environment, children are actually encouraged to guess at something rather than what's labeled "not trying at all" -- a recommendation that really conflicts with supposedly wanting children to ask questions whenever they can. After all, if you want them to try their best at all times, why would they ask someone for help? They're supposed to try. They're supposed to succeed and win that gold star, and they're meant to do it all on their own.

These mixed messages undoubtedly lead to a lot of children refraining from asking questions when they should. It's that, and it's social pressure. What are you kid, stupid? Why did you ask that? Why don't you know that already? Don't you pay attention? Are you an idiot?

Meanwhile, popular news is incredibly accessible. Headlines regarding historical figures hardly pop up on a daily basis, but the latest stories regarding the hottest celebrities are published on hundreds of websites in a span of mere minutes.

It's really not that impossible to believe, and I'm surprised more people don't see that.

[Uzor]

Maybe the kids just confused Buzz Lightyear with Buzz Aldrin! He was only behind Neil by like 5 seconds!

Actually, it's very possible that they HAD heard the name Buzz Aldrin before, and that, coupled with their familiarity with Buzz Lightyear could very well explain this particular question. Maybe they thought the Toy Story character was named for the actual astronaut.

Buzz Aldrin tried to convince Neil Armstrong to let him be the first, as his father would be very disappointed if he wasn't the first. Buzz was the captain of the Lunar Module, and both he and his father felt he had the right to be the first man on the moon. NASA didn't agree, and ordered Neil Armstrong to be the first one.

I do not, however, believe the children mixed it together. I'm willing to bed most of them thought its just more fun to write down Lightyear.

Ever since my childhood I've known more about science etc. than information about famous people. I don't even know who that Cheryl person is... And why on earth would I be interested in what diseases she catch? One child die from it (malaria) every 30 seconds, they don't write this in the newspaper.

[Arcana]

British tabloids are brilliant for writing articles like these and blowing the figures way out of preportion; dont get me wrong the knowledge about celebrity is mainly because most of these children are likley to have Young & Single mothers who have no intelligence beyond the world of celebrities, but between the ages of 6-12 most kids get a good education to know that Noel Edmonds is a total wanker and to have a laugh on tests that arn't serius buzziness.

[Syntex]

Reminds me of the skit that happens on the tonight show where they ask americans to point to north america on a map and they point to asia or something equally retarded.

I know they have to ask like 30 people before they find one person but thats still retarded we have that many idiots running around.