If you would like to match wits with the students of King William’s College, take a glance at one of the year-end quizzes (which the Guardian calls “the toughest quiz on the planet”).

Here are some of the questions (with the answers in parentheses):

· “how did we learn about solitary feline ambulation?” (the Just So Stories of Rudyard Kipling)
· who lost “both legs, but returned heroically and was downed at Béthune?” (Douglas Bader)
· “where, in Europe, is the Zahringen?” (Berne)

I’ve never heard of Bethune, Douglas Bader, or the Zahringen, and that’s the way it was with most of the questions. After a while I just felt inadequate, so I stopped.

Via Plep.

Posted by Amy as Education at 3:04 AM EDT

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A new initiative in British education will see Hollywood heroes used to help children understand Christianity.

According to Helen Cook of the Sheffield Hallam University, “We teach a generation for whom religious symbol, myth and story are sometimes meaningless. Around 40 per cent of teenagers visit the cinema once a month. It’s hardly surprising that their assessments of what’s heroic and evil, possible and impossible are partly based on the world experienced through TV and film.”

Sixteen teachers are learning how to incorporate film characters into their religious education lessons.

Apparently “school children will be told that Superman is like Jesus because both arrived on earth in usual circumstances after being sent here by their fathers, both move from relative obscurity as a child to a more prominent adulthood, both help the humans they are sent to live with and both struggle to stand up for truth against injustice and evil.”

For the complete article, click here.

Via Ruth Gledhill.

Posted by Amy as Television & Movies, Cartoons & Comics, Education at 6:20 AM EST

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