Well, I read in a recent poll of 18-39 year olds in the United States almost a quarter thought the Holocaust was a myth, had been exaggerated, or weren’t sure. For nearly two-thirds of respondents, the idea that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust was a new one, while for one in eight the very word "Holocaust" was unknown. These are events that happened only 75 years ago, so expecting them to know of people and events 100, 150, 200, etc years ago is probably right out. I sure would like to know what the younger folks today study since I am constantly reminded that they have it so much harder academically that folks in my age group (64).
The difference between when I was in school and my children is that they are one year ahead in math and science.
As far as the other stuff, it has always been bad. I used to play a game with some of the folks I worked with.
I would take an inflatable globe, call out a country and see how long it would take them to find it. It was pretty embarrassing, and these were folks just a little younger than you and I, and also college graduates.
My speculation is that this is more of a marketing issue. Pioneers aren't really the best branding. Just look at Pioneer Chicken. Pioneers may have been a stronger branding back in the days when frontier movies were more popular.
Before folks try to politicize this, they should consider what the marketing campaign would look like built around pioneer branding. It would be pretty limiting, especially internationally, and even in parts of the US where these pioneers are not as much at the forefront of our history lessons.
Heck, we could have named them after missions on the El Camino Real but that would not have meant much in certain parts of the country where the missions are not studied as in depth, or at all.
I am sure that there are folks that are more familiar with Junipero Serra than they are with Jim Bowie. Maybe not in Texas.
International Business Machines changed to IBM because the business machine brand did not reflect the current company and where it was going. It doesn't matter that most folks don't know what IBM stands for.
In fact, that is a plus since not knowing does not place any limitations on marketing. And if you want to see an example of the name/marketing relationship, just look at GEICO (which by the way stands for Government Employees Insurance Company).
I worked for years for a company that rebranded to its initials, like IBM did. Then it rebranded to a new three letter set of initials, and nobody could even tell us what they stood for. They were just three letters that sounded good together.
This was a large international company with a corporate branding department. They had a plan, even if I did not understand it.
