My son’s A Level History paper today includes questions on the 80s and 90s.
Posted by Striking-Amoeba-5563@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 46 comments
My eldest (18) is doing his second A Level History paper today. Last night we were chatting about what's going to come up for him. Possible questions on Thatcher, Blair, Major, the poll tax, the Blair/Bush relationship etc.
Showed him the Spitting Image sketches John Major and his peas, and Margaret Thatcher and 'the vegetables will have the same as me'.
He was surprised when I pointed out viewing figures for Spitting Image, in its prime, were HUGE. Explained that there were only four channels at the time so you watched what was on.
Not only does having a kid taking A Levels make me feel old, but my childhood and young adulthood being on a history paper? Eek!
The first GE I voted in was '97 and now it's history.
GM_Nate@reddit
At this point, I should HOPE our childhood is in a history class. Anything over 20 years old should be in it.
rincod@reddit
Agreed. I remember wishing my high school history class covered the Vietnam War. Everything seemed to end with WWII.
Drslappybags@reddit
I think we got up to what had happened in the Yugoslav war.
perpetualpastries@reddit
When I was in college, I learned about the Cold War and 9/11 happened when I was a junior. It was interesting to realize I was living through something future college students would be studying, and I sure hope they are by now!!
Bronska@reddit
Yes, at the beginning of COVID I thought 'this event will launch a thousand theses' (although I'm guessing there's far more than a thousand COVID related theses now).
Striking-Amoeba-5563@reddit (OP)
Doesn’t half make me feel old though!
UsidoreTheLightBlue@reddit
It’s funny, our parents used to tell us about going to the soda fountain and getting a milk shake for a dime or whatever.
Now we’re telling our kids about blockbuster video and only having 4 channels.
They’ll never “get it” until it happens to them.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said something like “man when it wasn’t that long ago this highway didn’t exist, it took so much longer to get to X…for that matter X used to just be corn fields, it’s crazy” before realizing I just sound like my parents when I was a kid.
Geochic03@reddit
I saw a commercial last night for Instacart where it was about a mom teaching her tween/teen how to 90s. I felt personally offended because im not that old... right....RIGHT?????
SweetCosmicPope@reddit
I always bitch about prices and I realize I sound like my gramps when he'd say gas was only a dime. lol I was bitching about $5 gas the other day and like "I remember when gas was only $1!" Ramen is now like a buck fifty each, and I was like "Remember when you could get 10 for a dollar?!"
AggressiveAd5592@reddit
History class in the 90's ended in the 60's for me, pre-Vietnam war. Mostly ended in the 40's at WW2 but being in the the US we got a little bit of JFK and MLK.
WW2 was sort of the main event. We had WW2 vets come in, Holocaust survivors come it to speak, WW1 was not covered, we never made it to Vietnam.
SweetCosmicPope@reddit
I remember early elementary social studies covering the fall of the berlin wall, and it had just happened like a year or two prior.
Pavlover2022@reddit
I mean, it's "the late 1900s" so technically 'history', I guess?! Not that that makes ANY of us feel any better...
Mountain-Fox-2123@reddit
Its not technically history.
It is history
Striking-Amoeba-5563@reddit (OP)
Okay so I’m genuinely wondering if this sub is the right place for you? There’s a lot of light-hearted stuff about feeling old, nostalgia, Peter Kay style ‘ooh remember when a Freddo were 12p’ and so on. It’s all meant in good fun for the most part. If that kind of thing makes you this narky you might not enjoy it here? Just a thought.
Mountain-Fox-2123@reddit
Getting downvoted for stating a fact.
Typical reddit.
Striking-Amoeba-5563@reddit (OP)
So you’ve replied to me here but I’ve not actually downvoted you. Hope you can find a way to make Reddit work for you despite your tendency for pedantry. Best of luck.
Pruritus_Ani_@reddit
One of my nephews asked me “what was it like living in the last century?” And I was like “I know I’m getting old, but I’m not that bloody old!” and then I realised he was talking about the 1900s and not the 1800s and my brain short circuited a little bit 😂
BoltsGuy02@reddit
Most xennials were born closer to the bombing of Pearl Harbor than they are to their birth today.
Ex. 1980- 39 years after Pearl Harbor/45 years old
Bluevanonthestreet@reddit
😵💫
Pavlover2022@reddit
How's this for a sobering fact: were back to the future to be made today, Marty would be travelling back to 1995..../
Bluevanonthestreet@reddit
Which would be a really amazing movie! I would love to go back to 1995.
Pruritus_Ani_@reddit
Ouch.
Striking-Amoeba-5563@reddit (OP)
Haha what a thought — would deffo watch that version of the film ^_^
Bluevanonthestreet@reddit
It makes sense. We stopped at the Vietnam War in high school history. Which is about the same amount of time as those events. Which sounds crazy but time is weird once you become an adult.
luxtabula@reddit
any mentions of the involvement in Iraq and the eventual discovery of the truth behind the war? That stuff feels very historical now even though it was two decades ago.
Striking-Amoeba-5563@reddit (OP)
Striking-Amoeba-5563@reddit (OP)
Oh absolutely, yes, that’s a big part of it, we’ve had discussions about it all too.
I also told my eldest about George Michael’s Shoot the Dog. He referenced it in an essay and ended up with a A. Though I think that was more down to his hard work and research than me dropping a little bit of cultural info. ;)
Dangerous_Radish2961@reddit
Makes me feel even older. In fairness the 90s was a good time in uk history, I’m pleased they are learning about it.
barNOPEssa@reddit
academically, generally anything over twenty years in the past is considered far enough of a distance to examine it from an objective perspective, so as old as it makes me feel, as a historian, this isn't that weird.
Striking-Amoeba-5563@reddit (OP)
Yeah I know, and to be fair it’s quite nice to be able to help one’s child as a kind of ‘living history exhibit’!
barNOPEssa@reddit
lmao they don't tell you it's gonna hurt when it happens to you, i'm sure my mom went through the five stages of grief when i started thrifting the kinds of close she wore in the 70s during the late 90s.
i had my first taste of it working on finishing my degree when we were discussing what we were considering for a thesis, and one guy was like policies during Clinton's administration and i had to take a minute.
Voluntary_Perry@reddit
Calm down.... We answered questions about the 60s.... Which was closer to our time learning about it than the 80s are to now.
Striking-Amoeba-5563@reddit (OP)
I’m pretty calm tbh. :)
Voluntary_Perry@reddit
dcgrey@reddit
My U.S. history teacher started the year with the end of the textbook because he was sick of having to rush through recent history at the end of the school year. Our textbook included up through the George H.W. Bush administration (Gulf War, reintegration of eastern Europe). So in the 90s I was studying the 90s.
randomwords83@reddit
Same! My daughter just finished her sophomore year and was in AP US History and they included stuff from recent years.
lsp2005@reddit
My eldest is a high school senior and two years ago interviewed me for what happened to me on 9/11. I was in DC. Then he interviewed my BIL who was in building 7 of the WTC. They called it a living history project.
Striking-Amoeba-5563@reddit (OP)
I’m totally calling myself a ‘living history project’ from now on ^_^
But joking aside that’s a great way to teach recent history.
Wrong-Jeweler-8034@reddit
As a history teacher, it pains me sometimes when I’m teaching high schoolers about events I lived through when I was their age 😭
Mountain-Fox-2123@reddit
So what ?
You do know that the 80s and 90s is history right ?
I fail to see the problem here
Yesterday is history, 1 hour ago is history, 1 minute ago is history. the past is history
It would be very strange if, they in the 2020s did not have questions about the 1980s and 1990s.
Striking-Amoeba-5563@reddit (OP)
Bloody hell mate it’s just a light-hearted post about feeling old on realising your childhood is now history. Quite a few of them in this sub.
Not sure how you’ve taken it as me complaining about the A Level History syllabus but maybe you’re having a bad day? Have a cuppa and I hope you’re feeling better soon. x
RiskenFinns@reddit
Failing to see the problem where none was being presented is a weird flex.
HopelessMagic@reddit
CrazyMinute69@reddit
Great, i'm older than you. Only by one year, And you just made me feel old for literally the first time.
Beginning-Jacket-878@reddit
9/11? Is that a convenience store?
Rugbysmartarse@reddit
Yeah, my eldest is currently studying apartheid