I went to pick a pupil up a couple of weeks ago – he lives right in the centre of Nottingham. On my way through the city I hit traffic around the Trent FM Arena. This was due to the fact that Torvill and Dean’s ice show was on that night.
Now, I could start a whole new topic about the average age of the people going to this show, and the fact that being of that age somehow gives you the right to stop on yellow lines with strict No Waiting restrictions, right in the middle of busy multi-lane one-way systems during rush hour. But that isn’t my point.
Anyway, I picked up my pupil, and before we drove away I said to him that we weren’t going anywhere near the city centre because Torvill and Dean were on at the Arena, and the traffic was bad.
He said: “Who are Torvill and Dean?”
I couldn’t believe my ears. He had never heard of them. He justified this by saying that he knew about things from his own lifetime, but not before – but I still found it shocking, and I still wind him up about it.
To make matters worse, I was telling the story to a Pass Plus pupil a week or so later, and she’d not heard of them either. Better still, she said “Are you into ice dance then?” Bloody cheek! I can’t stand it, but I know who Torvill and Dean are.
I mean, what is the world coming to when young people haven’t heard of things that happened before they were born? Some of the best films and funniest comedians lived, worked, and sometimes died, long before I was born – but I still know of them, and I knew of them long before the Internet.
And it’s the same when it comes to music. Rush – who, behind only the Beatles and Rolling Stones, are the band with the most consecutive gold and platinum albums of all time – are totally unknown to most pupils. Last year, one chap (who was into rock music) had never heard of them, but when I gave him some of their stuff he was just blown away. He played it to one of his friends who said “I just can’t believe I’ve never heard of these.” At least I got a couple of converts out of it, though.
But anyway, I refuse to accept it is a sign that I am getting old. It’s just further evidence that young people are getting dumber – at least as far as history goes!
EDIT 19/05/2010: And it gets worse. Another one last night hadn’t heard of Torvill and Dean, either. The problem of ignorance amongst today’s youth is a bigger problem than anyone realises.