> > > . . . I just get tired of people acting like teenagers are stupid. . . .it does sound like we must be idiots for not knowing those things.
> >
> > I was an odd teenager: my social bias was ahead of my age. I was impatient and unappreciative of my peers. And yet I had much the same attitude that you have, perhaps for that reason: it bothered me that older people upholded a certain negative view of teenagers. It was an unexpressed view. Nonetheless, now I think I overreacted.
> >
> > At any rate, as others have said, the purpose of this list is to make people feel old, not make teenagers feel dumb. The list may have been unfortunately worded, but I felt the intent clear: as Kelly said, even if you are knowledgeable of cultural history, you haven't lived through it, and therefore the events spoken of are simply not going to mean the same things to you as they do to those a decade or so older than you. Let's face it. The teenagers fifteen years from now will simply never be able to know what it was like to live through Princess Diana's death or Y2K, for example. And when you realize that one day, you're going to feel old. And it doesn't mean the teenagers of that day are stupid.
> >
> > For better or worse, I deleted most of the point-by-point responses to this list, because I couldn't imagine that many would care to read exactly which points a half dozen specific teengaers agreed with and which they did not. I almost deleted this subthread, too, being no longer as relevant, but I decided the discussion of the issue itself was more than worthwhile. If any of you care to continue this discussion, please do.
>
>
> Hmmm. When I started this thread, I just thought it was funny. And then, reading the responses (varied as they were) I was just surprised. I always try not to offend anyone (call it a shortcoming, if you will) so the responses by the young people on this group, of which I honestly didn't think there were that many of (really, you guys act so mature, I thought it was a group of old fogies) caught me completly off guard. Such is life, I guess. Something can be meant in a totally innocent way, purely for it's entertainment value, and go completly awry.
>
> I, like Sam, was not impressed with most of my peers growing up. Especially those formative years they call *High School*. I, too, have the opinion that most grown ups treated me like an idiot just because I was a teenager (they were probably right) But as I grow older (I'm at the ripe old age of 23 presently) I find more and more that media represent the young people as knowing everything and the grownups as the idiots. I use, as a very bad example(bad as in, I hated this movie and it should die a horrible, lingering death) the movie "Home Alone". The kid is so smart (yes I know he's not a teenager, but we're talking generals here) and the *evil* grownups so stupid (I mean, the parents *forget* their kid...how stupid can you be?) that they are unable to even think rationally in the presence of this kid, who must be some kind of genious...
>
> Now, I'm not saying anything bad about the people who post here. You are obviously smart enough to find the best site on the internet (*wink* to all the rinkworkians out there) and you deserve our respect, just as much as we deserve yours. I hope that you don't think of us *old* people as stupid, just as you hope we don't think of you the same way.
>
> That's enough ranting about this subject, for me, anyway.
>
> Ticia


I know that riding a dead horse doesn't get you very far, but I want to add my couple pennies in here too.

The original post that started all of this *was* meant in good faith for entertainment value, but it was more than that. The reason the list was compiled in the first place was for eduactional purposes. While the majority of the people who post here may have lived through it, or recall it from history class, there is a vast majority of todays starting freshmen who *may not* have any idea about most of the things on this list. Now it could be assumed that *everyone* knows everything on it, but that would most likely be detrimental to education. It is much safer to assume that they do *not* know these things and conduct class accordingly.

There were some things on the list *I* didn't know. Like the reason for the Gulf War, Black Monday or Tianamen Square. And it wasn't just a history lesson for me. I was alive and kicking. I was 17 years old when Black Monday happened, married and 20 during the Gulf War. And I *still* don't know when the Tianamen Square happened. My point is that I am *not* stupid for not knowing these things. But if someone had assumed that I *didn't* know, instead of thinking that *everyone must know* I may have had the opportunity to be a bit more educated about them.

So don't become offended about this list. It really was compiled in the best interests of anyone who may not have had the opportunities that apparantly the majority of RinkWorks has had.

Drac