High School Teachers Are Sharing 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.

Surprising Things Students Don't Know

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

Comment
by from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
in Teachers

Others don’t know their own addresses

Comment
by u/corvettefan from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
in Teachers

A few don’t know their own middle names

Comment
by u/kcteach80 from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
in Teachers

Some AP students don’t know there are AP tests

Comment
by u/StereoOnCookingBacon from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
in Teachers

Some high schoolers are surprised by the fact that Alaska is not southwest of California (because that’s how it is on the map)

Comment
by u/StereoOnCookingBacon from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
in Teachers

Math teachers say they’ve had students who don’t know their odd and even numbers

Comment
by from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
in Teachers

Or their multiplication facts

Comment
by u/percy_ardmore from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
in Teachers

Some students don’t know the months of the year

Comment
by u/suzyswitters from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
in Teachers

Or how to write an address and where to put a stamp

Comment
by u/rrschoolj from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
in Teachers

Or which letters are vowels

Comment
by u/Anne_Lwrnc from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
in Teachers

Or how to tell time

Comment
by u/TheCBDeacon from discussion What was your HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THIS moment?
in Teachers

And finally…what’s in a deck of cards

Comment
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.

Plus, for more articles like this, be sure to subscribe to our newsletters.

High School Teachers Are Sharing the Surprising Things Their Students Don't Know