“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” (Ephesians 4.14.)
To what extent are schoolchildren influenced in the ways they view the world by the tenets of orthodoxy ?
Most schoolteachers will readily admit that the average schoolchild finds anything remotely academic — orthodox or otherwise — thoroughly tedious. Try as even the most dedicated teacher might, it is extremely difficult to permanently instil into the adolescent mind anything on a higher intellectual level than the top twenty, football, sex and the contents of the Beano. The words of a cynical teacher, perhaps, but nevertheless true to an alarming degree, and by inference, it must to some extent carry over to the public at large who, after all, have at some stage each left their schools with the usual quota of misconceptions and downright muddle–headedness, and with very little inclination to do anything about it. It is all too easy to forget that, in spite of our technological age with its compulsory education up to the age of fifteen or so, ignorance is still very largely bliss.
The following is a brief account of a questionnaire issued to a cross–section of the pupils at the school in which I teach — a Comprehensive Senior High School (ages 14 to 18 years) on the outskirts of Manchester. The questionnaire was issued to 130 pupils from the fourth form (lowest age group) to the Upper Sixth Form (University Entrance level.) Each group was of average or above–average intelligence: I did not test the large number of what are known to Educational Psychologists as “non–academics”, and what are known to those who actually have to teach them as “the dead-legs.” Only the better half of a sample of men–and–women–in–the–street–to–be were tested, therefore. The dead–legs are best passed over in silence lest the depths of their ignorance throw the reader into unutterable depths of gloom and despondency over the future of Homo Sapiens.
The questionnaire was completed under exam conditions, ten to fifteen minutes (longer if required) being allowed for completion. The questions asked were as follows:
1. What do you know about Stonehenge ?
2. What do you know about the Ancient Britons ?
3. Who was Charles Darwin, and for what is he famous ?
4. What do you know about St. George ?
5. What do you know about Leonardo da Vinci ?
6. What do you know about Adolf Hitler ?
7. What do you know about Julius Caesar ?
8. Who wrote Othello, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream ?
9. What do you know about Karl Marx ?
10. Who were the twelve apostles, and how many of them can you name ?
11. What do you understand by “Left–Wing Politics” ?
12. How many planets of the Solar System can you name ?
Obviously in the space available here no more than a brief analysis is possible.
Question 1: Stonehenge was, on the whole, well known, the question being unanswered in only six scripts. It was variously described as an ancient ring of stones, remains of a temple, place of worship to sun and moon etc. Druids and sacrifice got frequent mentions. The astronomical use was mentioned a few times, one putting it down as a calendar, and another as a “complicated computer.” Two said that it had mysterious or magical power, and one that it was built for black magic purposes, and “partly destroyed by Christian Knights.” Another thought it was a ring of stones where witches met. One thought it was built to tell the time, another that it was an ancient stone monastery, and a third that it was a chapel. Several thought that the Romans built it, one thought that it was built in the third or fourth century, and three or four hinted that it was built millions of years ago. One person thought it was a Greek Temple, and two that it was where the Knights of the Round Table used to meet. Several said that it was built by primitives. One person said it was near Bolton, and another placed it in Scotland. My two personal favourite replies were that it was “an ancient tourist attraction”, and that it is “a wall about three feet high made of very large pebbles.”
Question 2: On the whole reasonably well answered with frequent use of words like warlike, primitive, uncivilised etc. Boadicea and woad were mentioned several times. Here, it seems, orthodoxy rules OK insofar as the primitivist view was predominant. One notable view, dragging Darwin well and truly into the primitivist mire, was: “The Ancient Britons were a group of men who descended from apes to become leaders of their country.” Curiously, the pupil who wrote this answered question 3 as follows: “Charles Darwin was famous for science and he made studies on the earthworm and on different parts of the earthworm.”
The question was unanswered on 46 of the scripts.
Question 3: I have an idea that this question should have been rephrased. I feel that many people would be familiar with the men–from–apes view without having the remotest idea who Darwin was. However, the question as phrased was, “Who was Charles Darwin etc ?” and the replies to it show that poor old Darwin has missed out in the household names stakes. In fact, Charles Darwin takes the prize for the greatest number of hilariously wrong answers in the style immortalised by Cecil Hunt’s books of schoolboy howlers, being rivalled only by Karl Marx (question 8.) Let the carnival commence....
“Charles Darwin was a Lancashire man famous for his poems.” Many, in fact, put him down variously as author, writer, novelist or poet, and a few thought he was a composer. One put him down as an actor and another as a professor of physics.
Charles Darwin as an inventor of some kind was also common. He was variously credited with inventing electricity, the radio, the telephone, the electric light bulb, the spinning jenny, the lighthouse and the express train.
Then there were the classics: “Charles Darwin was married to Mary Queen of Scots”; “Charles Darwin was the man who sank the ships in France”; “Charles Darwin was a boat builder famous for sailing”; and finally, “Charles Darwin was famous for his farming in Britain, mainly sheep–rearing.”
The question was unanswered in 44 cases, and only 21 could be said to be correct replies. In the words of Seller and Yeatman (1066 and All That), Charles Darwin is not Very Memorable. Woe is Darwin!
Question 4: St. George was very widely known as the slayer of a dragon which had previously had a thing about devouring maidens, princesses, and even whole villages. He was also known as the patron saint of England — and in one instance as the “pagan saint” of England. He was associated with Wales three times, Scotland twice and Ireland once. The question was unanswered in only ten cases.
Question 5: I was surprised to learn that Leonardo was so widely known both as an artist (the Mona Lisa was frequently mentioned) and as an inventor. The question was unanswered in only thirteen cases, and incorrectly answered (eg a composer) in only eleven. Many put him down as an artist, but then got muddled — eg one thought he painted the Bayeux Tapestry. But as I say, in the main he was well known.
There were four classic howlers here: one thought that da Vinci was born in Scarborough (there were one or two muddled guesses as to his country of origin and epoch), and another said that “he did St. Paul’s”. Several who thought he was an artist mixed him up with Van Gogh. The two best were: “He cut off his ear when his best friend left him”, and, “He used to sign his paintings ‘Vincent’.”
Question 6: In one instance this question was actually left unanswered. One person said he was, “The leader of the German army when Germany won the war”, and another that, “He led the German army to triumph in World War II.” Apart from these and one or two other rather minor points, Hitler was universally known as the leader of the Germans in the Second World War.
Question 7: Unanswered in only three cases, the vast majority giving him as the famous Roman emperor who came and saw and conquered Britain etc. Some mixed him up with condemning Christ, and of those who knew he was assassinated, a couple thought Mark Antony did the dirty deed, whereas one thought it was Spartacus. There were a few curiosities, though: one put, “She was a Roman emperor”, another that “he ordered the building of Adrian’s Wall”, and a third that “he conquered Britain in the Stone Age.” Then came, “Julius Caesar had something to do with July. That’s why they called him Julius. He was a king who ruled over the Greeks.” In one instance he was demoted to “a well known Roman soldier”, and in another “he was killed by his own guards when taking a bath.”
Question 8: Very widely known, though nine people failed to answer the question at all, three attributed the plays to Charles Dickens, and one wrote that Hamlet was by Shakespeare and A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Agatha Christie.
Question 9: Karl Marx, as I said earlier, was the only serious rival to Darwin for not being Very Memorable. He was labelled poet, painter, composer or author by several.
Many put him down as a comedian, for reasons which are made obvious by this classic: “Karl Marx was a comedian known for the way he walked when smoking a cigar.” Then there was the strange double–howler: “Karl Marx is one of the famous Marx brothers who were the first men to fly an aeroplane across the Atlantic Ocean.”
Out of the 130 scripts, this question was unanswered in 57 cases. Correct answers were received in 45 cases. I counted as correct the model understatement: “He wasn’t against communism.”
Question 10: The twelve apostles were, not surprisingly, well known, though in 20 cases the question remained unanswered, and nobody could name all twelve (indeed, I couldn’t without looking them up.) As with the planets (see question 12), most knew they were the followers of Jesus, and named four or five, but tended to include one or two hitherto unrecognised apostles. The following were promoted, in some instances more than once: David, Stephen, Anthony, Martin, Jacob, Daniel, Joseph, Michelle, Benjamin, Joshua and Patrick. Two disciples whose names were given a ‘re–spray’, as it were, were “Look” and “Barfolmonu”.
Question 11: “Left–wing politics” meant little or nothing to most, with several replies to the effect that left–wing meant conservative. One wrote simply “Anti–Communist!” and another that, “They are more conservative than the right–wing — eg Labour, Tories.” Then came: “They are on strike and hold bill–boards. They are picketing”; “People who want white people in England, not black”; “They oppose the government in office”; “The opposite to the right-wing: the opposition”; “Left–wing politics is the Labour Party (part of) and the National Front”; and, “The politics all sit on the left side of the room.” There was also the enigmatic reply — from a pupil who should obviously become a diplomat; “Left–wing politics is two groups. One supports one theory and the other a different theory.”
There were 30 correct replies to this question, and 62 cases where the question was left unanswered.
Question 12: This question was unanswered in only three cases. Few named all nine planets, though one or two mentioned the newly discovered tenth planet. As with the twelve apostles question, many gave four or five planets, and then included the sun or moon or both. One specifically said “excluding the sun.” Uranium and Apollo were both given the status of planets, once each. Capricorn was named as a planet twice, and the Milky Way put in an appearance. “Stars” was listed once. Several, in response to “How many can you name ?” wrote simply “seven” or “six” or whatever, without naming them. One named seven but said there were twelve, and another named three but said there were thirteen.
Bob Forrest, November 1977.
More than thirty five years on from doing the original Darwin Survey, it occurs to me that it would perhaps be instructive to re–run the survey today. For example, with the advent of Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code, would we now get, in response to question 5, Leonardo da Vinci as a creator of codes ? I say this because, in about 2005, when I was explaining the Fibonacci Sequence to a maths class, I was surprised to find that one or two students already knew about it — from chapter 11 of Dan Brown’s novel!
Again, with so much information formerly locked in relatively obscure books being now so readily available via the internet and multiple TV channels (much of it, alas, misinformation), would we now get, in response to question 1, Stonehenge as an ancient landing pad for UFOs or a terminal of some giant earth–energy battery ? Though Erich von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods, like John Michell’s View over Atlantis, had been around since 1969, they had clearly made no impact on the pupils who did the Darwin Survey in 1977, or at least, not enough to surface in the survey. In fact, back then, my students probably learned more about ley lines from me than from any other source! But that might have changed — indeed, if I was re–doing the survey now, I might be tempted to slip in a question about UFOs and another about ley lines.
Again, with the plethora of recent material about the occult forces behind the Third Reich, and various oft repeated TV programmes about the Nazis, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Spear of Destiny, we might now get some interesting new answers to question 6.
Unfortunately, being retired, I can no longer re–run the survey myself, but if anyone reading this fancies doing it, then by all means do so — just be sure to let me know the results!
Bob Forrest, February 2015.