Community Chat

[madzonie]

Last week, the TV game show, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," had Whiz Kids Week. The contestants were all between 11 & 16 years of age.

While I can't remember the question, this one boy had a choice of 4 answers. Three of the answers were Ansel Adams, John James Audubon, Henry David Thoreau and one other I can't recall.

The correct answer was Thoreau, but....the kid said he'd never heard of Ansel Adams or John James Audubon.

I was rather shocked that he hadn't heard of these two people from our American culture...so that got me to wondering if this was an example of a generation gap?

Just pondering...

[LaterGator]

That is curious, however, I did know who Audubon was when I was in my early teens but I did not know or appreciate Ansel Adams until later in life. So I'm guessing, if this young man had heard of him or even studied him or them and didn't care for the subject matter, then he probably didn't know.

They (the kids) were quite young to be embodied in culture so I think it's more their age than anything else.

[Clover29]

DH has known of Ansel Adams since forever, but I only heard of him quite recently. Different people have different spheres of interest and it's possible to miss passing references to something. My own interests lie much more with Audubon than Thoreau.

[chrystaltree]

...why would you be shocked? It's not like people go around talking about either of them. I'm sure kids who took an art appreciation course would have read a paragraph or two about them but if a kid didn't have a particular interest in American art, the names wouldn't register. They were both naturalists, once again, if a kid doesn't have an interest in that area, they wouldn't know about them. Kids learn things but if it's irrelevant to them today, they they only retain until they take a test or quiz. Audobon and Thoreau, I know. Ansel Adams, I only recognized the name. I had to Google it to refesh my memory.

[ROMARY]

Slightly off topic, but I was watching and listening to Kelly Ripa this morning.......she was talking about, as a teenager, her parents and family having only one phone with a long cord stationed in the middle of their hallway. And, while showering, I was thinking that although Kelly is quite a few years younger than I am, we have almost identical childhood and teen experiences. Isn't that ironic, to me, anyway.