Re: A Ransome Moment...


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Posted by Robert Dilley on September 13, 2004 at 19:04:39 from 65.39.13.79 user rdilley.

In Reply to: Re: A Ransome Moment... posted by David Bamford on September 12, 2004 at 23:10:07:

Several years I was on a long (2-day) car trip with my wife and three of her younger siblings. To pass the time we played Twenty Questions. One point devolved on the order of the planets from the Sun and one then 17-year-old sister-in-law had no idea of this, despite being in the Science stream at school.

When I expressed surprise, I was told -- quite indignantly -- that she "didn't need to know that for any of her classes." The idea that information was worth knowing as information simply eluded her. Likewise, I have had students draw terrible maps for one of my third-year University classes. When I enquire whether they took the second-year mapping course I get the answer "Oh, that was for that course." Each hoop, once jumped through, is forgotten and left behind.

The compass rose is not unknown here. Someone drew one on the wall of the men's washroom on my floor. It made a change from the usual drawings -- but it was a pity the artist, after putting N at the top and S at the bottom, proceeded to put E to the left and W to the right. Maybe he was looking at a transparent compass card from underneath? Someone (not me, I swear) added a comment to the effect of "I hope you are not a Geography major."

Even so, the idea of a 22-year-old not knowing what the N at the top of a compass rose meant, is pretty mind-boggling.



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