Whisper
February 11th, 2008, 01:03 PM
People who were reared in Britain -- the famous and the garden-variety neighbour alike -- have always left Telescope with the impression the British public education system produces a erudite, worldly population with a firm grasp on a broad base of knowledge.
We're beginning to rethink that assumption, at least as far as modern-day British teens are concerned.
According to a poll by British TV channel UKTV Gold, 23 per cent of under-20 Britons think Winston Churchill is a myth, while 58 per cent figure Sherlock Holmes was for real.
But that's not all, reports London's Daily Telegraph. The poll found 47 per cent think 12th-century crusader King Richard the Lionhearted and Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale are also myths. Three per cent even figure Charles Dickens, one of Britain's most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself. You can also add to that list the Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington.
And who exactly did they think was real, aside from Holmes, the fictional detective of Baker Street? Well, King Arthur, for one (that whole thing with Excalibur, Camelot, Merlin? ... all made up), who scored 65 per cent on the reality side, Robin Hood, who came in at 51 per cent, and the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby, the woman who kept her face in a jar by the door; 47 per cent thought she was real.
More than three-quarters of the teens admitted they never crack open a history book. Gee, there's a surprise.
I found this in the fucking Edmonton Journal I was like wtf
We're beginning to rethink that assumption, at least as far as modern-day British teens are concerned.
According to a poll by British TV channel UKTV Gold, 23 per cent of under-20 Britons think Winston Churchill is a myth, while 58 per cent figure Sherlock Holmes was for real.
But that's not all, reports London's Daily Telegraph. The poll found 47 per cent think 12th-century crusader King Richard the Lionhearted and Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale are also myths. Three per cent even figure Charles Dickens, one of Britain's most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself. You can also add to that list the Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington.
And who exactly did they think was real, aside from Holmes, the fictional detective of Baker Street? Well, King Arthur, for one (that whole thing with Excalibur, Camelot, Merlin? ... all made up), who scored 65 per cent on the reality side, Robin Hood, who came in at 51 per cent, and the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby, the woman who kept her face in a jar by the door; 47 per cent thought she was real.
More than three-quarters of the teens admitted they never crack open a history book. Gee, there's a surprise.
I found this in the fucking Edmonton Journal I was like wtf