As teachers, we expect to build background knowledge. After all, students come to our classrooms with vastly different experiences, backgrounds, and educations. Still, sometimes they manage to catch us off guard with things they don’t know, as evidenced by the responses to this trending Reddit thread.
Redditor TapiocaPudding98 kicked things off by sharing that her ninth grade students “don’t know what country they lived in, didn’t know their birthday, and kids who have never heard of 9/11.”
What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
by u/TapiocaPudding98 in Teachers
Those responses might seem pretty surprising—if you don’t teach high school. But other teachers were quick to add the surprising things their students don’t know. Some of these gaps are generational, others stem from background and education, and others…well, we can’t explain:
Some students can’t recognize basic shapes
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by from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
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Others don’t know their own addresses
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by u/corvettefan from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
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A few don’t know their own middle names
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by u/kcteach80 from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
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Some AP students don’t know there are AP tests
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by u/StereoOnCookingBacon from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
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Some high schoolers are surprised by the fact that Alaska is not southwest of California (because that’s how it is on the map)
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by u/StereoOnCookingBacon from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
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Math teachers say they’ve had students who don’t know their odd and even numbers
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by from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
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Or their multiplication facts
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by u/percy_ardmore from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
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Some students don’t know the months of the year
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by u/suzyswitters from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
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Or how to write an address and where to put a stamp
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by u/rrschoolj from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
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Or which letters are vowels
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by u/Anne_Lwrnc from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
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Or how to tell time
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by u/TheCBDeacon from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
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And finally…what’s in a deck of cards
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by u/walterpsherman from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
in Teachers
We’re curious, if you teach high school—do these stories resonate? What surprising things have you found that students don’t know? Please share in the comments.
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