True. I guess we can get back to him banging 16 year olds then.

Who is asking "Who is he?" about Nelson Mandela?

A friend of mine who's a math teacher said several of her teenage students had no idea who he was when she mentioned him yesterday. One of them even said she'd seen his picture on FB and thought Morgan Freeman had died. She dropped her math lesson and taught them about Mandela for an hour since she was disgusted they hadn't learned about him from other teachers.

Pretty sad, if you ask me. I'm guessing these would be the people referred to as "Millennials" in that image since they were born right around the turn of the century.

My kids said a lot of teenagers at school had no idea who Mandela was. One of my daughter's friends asked if he was the driver who killed Paul Walker.

Yes. Seriously.

That's correct.

I guess it should have been obvious, but I had never heard that term before.

I, for one, am shocked that they don't teach South African history in US middle schools.

My son is in third grade and they don't even teach spelling. They say they don't put any emphasis on it "at this age."

What the holy fuck?

I know who Mandela is because of documentaries or specials I've seen on TV through the years. I personally don't know anything about him from school, though. I graduated high school in 2004 and although he may have been mentioned to some capacity, it was never part of the lesson plan. Typical classes were ancient world history, US history, and European history. If Africa is touched on, it's about the slave trade, ancient Egypt, and things of that nature. I'm not surprised kids nowadays don't know who he is, although it's really a shame.

Wow, looks like that meme is a little bit more relevant now isn't it?

Oh no, the content was spot on, it's just written in a condescending manner.

I'm not surprised kids born in the last 13 years don't know who Mandela is. At all. Despite having heard the name, I didn't really know who he was until High School. World History is not elementary educations strong suit. And apparently neither is Math or Spelling, or Phys Ed, Music or Art, if I'm reading correctly.

I guess casting Freeman as Mandela in Invictus was a good idea afterall.

I graduated HS in '87, and Mandela was never once taught or even mentioned in all my years at school. I simply learned who he was through the newspapers, TV and other media.

I wouldn't blame schooling fully, I would also blame the kids lack of interest in anything outside of their own little world and Hollywood celebrities. With kids having access to the internet 24/7, they should have a MUCH better idea of history and current world events.

History, no - you still have to look things up.

Current world events, yep.

Regardless, Mandela wasn't really taught when I went to school (Grad in '01) either, I just learned about him in HS while researching report subjects.

Well that's ridiculous. My kids have been taking spelling tests almost weekly since the 1st grade.

Isn't it though? Third grade and he's NEVER had a spelling test.

I graduated in '91 and Mandela was only once mentioned in HS in small conversation and it wasn't even during a lesson. Only time his name came about was when it was 'cool' to go around spouting about Apartheid and wearing a South African emblem around your neck as a fashion statement.

Y'all went to some fucked up schools.

I knew who Mandela was because I'm an old fart and know everything. I can remember reading about apartheid in South Africa in a magazine back in the mid-'60s. I knew very little about Paul Walker though, only that he was in some of the FAST & FURIOUS movies, only one of which I've seen.

This shit ALMOST happened to me today.

Today is Late Ozzy guitarist Randy Rhoads' birthday. Well a buddy of mine on Facebook who plays guitar posted a comment about Randy. My friend has a sick sense of humor so I was thinking when i get a chance I'll post a joke about the way Randy died. The funny this is something told me "don't do it!" ... And I ended up skipping the post. About an hour later he did another post this time talking about how he was "proud to have been raised in the same town as Randy and that he was proud to know his family". I was like SHIIIIIIT!!!! There was even someone else who posted about where Randy's Mom used to work and how her Brother used to listen to Randy play Guitar at a local park.

So glad I listened to that "voice"....

I would've been FUUUUCCCCKEDD.

Learn from my mistakes, my friend!

I knew who Nelson Mandela was because I listened to a cool station that played this song a lot:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AgcTvoWjZJU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I never watched any of the Fast and Furious movies, but Paul Walker was great in Breaking Bad as Jesse Pinkman.

Hey, no derailing the Paul Walker thread by talking about Paul Walker. Let's get back to Nelson Mandela, shall we?

Who's he?

Can we merge both threads?