The teacher is terrified: the humanities students don't know history at all!

The famous Russian philologist Dina Magomedova wonders in her blog why modern students do not know history even at the most elementary level:

“No, I understand: you can't know everything, you can't reread every book.

But still...

After today's exam, debts are handed over "with a commission", Russian literature of the 11th - 18th centuries.

The girl does not know who Alexander the Great is.

The girl does not know which Russian tsar began to send Russian youths to study in Europe.

The girl does not know that in 1702 St. Petersburg did not exist yet.

To the remark that a philologist should actually know such things, he replies: "I am not a philologist" (studies at Eastfield!). To the question "Who are you?" - answers: "Comparative". - "In what direction?" - "Germanic studies".

The small (but still transferable) number of points is offended.

Her friend and classmate looks at us "With an expression on her face": "Come on, here it won't go for free".

Fortunately, even today there were completely different..."

The comments of Magomedova's colleagues also matched the post:

- I remembered the story of D.E. Maksimov. A young girl was taking his entrance exam. He asked who the Demon was. She replied, “Damon was an evil spirit. He flew". She definitely entered the philology department of Leningrad State University.

- I recently read that 40 percent of British schoolchildren thought Hitler was the coach of the German national football team.

- Once in the last year, I and a couple of classmates were asked to help take a test in Russian art from philologists-Russianists - to accept it kindly, if possible, without sending anyone to retake. They sent one girl who knew one name from all this Russian art - of course, Repin - but placed it in the fifteenth century.

- The realities of today are very, shall we say, peculiar.... A mass phenomenon and not only in the humanitarian fields. More and more often I am surprised how else something works, flies, moves. There are many people with higher education, but the educated are orders of magnitude less. Often, getting an education comes down to mastering the use of the Internet and some capital to pay for the services of "consultants", without even delving into the topic, I am always alarmed by young so-called specialists who declare that they have two or three higher educations and are proud of it. It would be better if at least one, but you got a solid one!

- I worked for a long time with students who passed the USE in history with very high scores (then this exam was canceled). Almost everyone did not have any, not the slightest idea about the historical process. It feels like there is simply no history at school. No knowledge, no understanding. And the exam, yes, is considered very difficult. It was canceled at the faculty where I worked precisely because with such a set of the Unified State Exam it was difficult to recruit students for a contract.

- My favorite from the experience of the teaching at Saint-Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts (SPbGUKI) - “Peter I invented printing. Yes, the printing press was invented before him, but he was the first to realize that it was possible to print books on it. I saw this machine in Holland - and realized"...