i would wager less than 25% of kids would remember who he was and what he was involved in even if taught in high school. Out of sight out of mind, especially if you're not into history lessons.

This is why schools should be named for important people and not renamed.

There were 80 years between the end of the Civil War and Little Boy. Little Boy & Fat Man made their presence known 78 years ago.

HollywoodBQ said:

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At the request of my Engineering degreed daughter, I just bought tickets to see Oppenheimer in 70mm tomorrow night (the day before it opens nationally - one of the few perks of paying to live in LA).

You would think this is going to be a hooray hashtag Women in STEM story but unfortunately, it's a sad state of education story.

After I bought the tickets, she says to me, now who was this guy? Was he like a Nazi scientist or something?

My jaw hit the floor. Not so much that she didn't know who he was - at least she's going to attend the movie and find out, but the fact that she didn't even know whose side he was on. She does know that we stole some scientists from the Nazis but that is more space program related.

I spent a ton of dough on private girls school in Australia and on out of state tuition at the West Point of the South. I can't believe that they didn't cover the development of The Bomb in either of those settings.

Maybe it's just accepted these days that "Nukes are Bad M'Kay" and they don't even discuss the Manhattan Project in history class.

It's been a long time since I took American History in HS, or US Military History in college but I just can't believe that kids these days would not even know the particulars about how we won the War in the Pacific. Since the Pacific Theater affected Australia the most, you'd think that they would teach schoolchildren that their bacon was saved by The Yanks and their A-Bombs. Also by Yanks like my Grandfather who went to Brisbane before participating in amphibious assaults in New Guinea and The Philippines.

So I asked her why did she want to see a 3 hour long movie (runtime 180 minutes with $22 tickets) if she didn't even know who the guy was. She said she heard it was a good movie.

I sure hope it is a good movie, we'll see.

So my question for the parents out there is - What do your kids know about Robert Oppenheimer, The Manhattan Project, WWII in the Pacific?

Is this just an isolated incident or, are we in the midst of an American History Pandemic?

Politics because - our kids should being taught this at the HS and/or College level.

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In this regardd you fiailed us father and that's why you know this so did many of us like seriously busting your ass to make sure she has the best money to go buy the best education the best education comes from home and that creates your father everyday I say you know what I need to spend more time with my kids I'm not let society YouTube TV the radio and definitely not Mark 16 spend hundreds of thousands of dollars online

Can we talk about whether our English classes are teaching us everything we need to know next?

And how would a 7th grade teacher get that knowledge? Anyone teaching my kids history should have that knowledge. I would guess ( I don't know for sure) that there is a large percentage of coaches (example above) teaching High School history that don't have that knowledge. Insert if you don't know history you are doomed quote here. This is a real problem a ww2 class with no mention of Hitler. I'm starting to see how airheads like AOC get elected.

We have very real education issues in our country.

hph6203 said:

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Can we talk about whether our English classes are teaching us everything we need to know next?

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I'm ready! Let's do it!

Daddy said:

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HollywoodBQ said:

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At the request of my Engineering degreed daughter, I just bought tickets to see Oppenheimer in 70mm tomorrow night (the day before it opens nationally - one of the few perks of paying to live in LA).

You would think this is going to be a hooray hashtag Women in STEM story but unfortunately, it's a sad state of education story.

After I bought the tickets, she says to me, now who was this guy? Was he like a Nazi scientist or something?

My jaw hit the floor. Not so much that she didn't know who he was - at least she's going to attend the movie and find out, but the fact that she didn't even know whose side he was on. She does know that we stole some scientists from the Nazis but that is more space program related.

I spent a ton of dough on private girls school in Australia and on out of state tuition at the West Point of the South. I can't believe that they didn't cover the development of The Bomb in either of those settings.

Maybe it's just accepted these days that "Nukes are Bad M'Kay" and they don't even discuss the Manhattan Project in history class.

It's been a long time since I took American History in HS, or US Military History in college but I just can't believe that kids these days would not even know the particulars about how we won the War in the Pacific. Since the Pacific Theater affected Australia the most, you'd think that they would teach schoolchildren that their bacon was saved by The Yanks and their A-Bombs. Also by Yanks like my Grandfather who went to Brisbane before participating in amphibious assaults in New Guinea and The Philippines.

So I asked her why did she want to see a 3 hour long movie (runtime 180 minutes with $22 tickets) if she didn't even know who the guy was. She said she heard it was a good movie.

I sure hope it is a good movie, we'll see.

So my question for the parents out there is - What do your kids know about Robert Oppenheimer, The Manhattan Project, WWII in the Pacific?

Is this just an isolated incident or, are we in the midst of an American History Pandemic?

Politics because - our kids should being taught this at the HS and/or College level.

---

In this regardd you fiailed us father and that's why you know this so did many of us like seriously busting your ass to make sure she has the best money to go buy the best education the best education comes from home and that creates your father everyday I say you know what I need to spend more time with my kids I'm not let society YouTube TV the radio and definitely not Mark 16 spend hundreds of thousands of dollars online

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You're misspellings and bad grahmer rival my own...I'm truly impressed.

To be fair, when you had history class, there were like 50 years of US history for them to teach.

hph6203 said:

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Can we talk about whether our English classes are teaching us everything we need to know next?

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I think this question answers itself.

My kids know a lot about the Manhattan Project. But then again, what I do for a living...

Apache said:

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Quote:

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Went to A&M with two guys from GonzaleS

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Wish you had stars so you could tell me their names.... pretty sure I would know them
Initials & the year they graduated HS would probably be enough though.
Edit - just saw that you were at A&M 30 years ago, so I would definitely know them. Was probably at the wedding you went to.

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GH '91 (this is the wedding I was in the Saber Arch for)
RP '92 (I might be wrong about this one but I'm pretty sure he was also from Gonzales)
Both Aggie Band
No need to post their full names but yeah, small world.

Buck Turgidson said:

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Viper16 said:

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Don't take this the wrong way Hollywood BQ, but what did you teach your child about US History over the years?

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Good point - there are certain things that I just take upon myself to make sure my kids know. The schools can't cover everything, and your kids won't remember all of what they do cover in school. In my case, I'm trying to double up on math and also fill in the missing gaps so that they get something closer to a classical education. Guess I should add the Manhattan project to the list as well.

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This is why when we went to Stuttgart, West Germany and saw my dad's old Army barracks and his favorite Gasthaus, he took us to see what was left of the bridge at Remagen.

Kind of a - this really happened and it happened right here kind of thing - 30 years ago (at that time).

UTExan said:

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Or do our kids know that this government still celebrates the Nazi scientists it imported during Operation Paperclip while trying to erase Confederate names from history?

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Since my daughter went to VMI - she's well aware.
During her Ratline it was optional for Black cadets to salute the Stonewall Jackson statue.

Her mom is from Clear Lake so she's all NASA'd up.

I'm not sure what they teach in history classes, but he definitely comes up in my chemistry class during the nuclear unit. But it's not like we spend days on the scientists involved.

93MarineHorn said:

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I wasn't taught anything about Oppenheimer in HS or college. I don't think this is that big a deal, OP. It's certainly not a "sign of the times" thing.

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I never heard about him until I watched documentaries when I was an adult.

Ag_of_08 said:

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Schools are too busy sticking coaches who know NOTHING about history in classrooms and ignoring the massive deficiencies in basic historical education, just as l9ng as little Johnny can play some by-god football

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Yes, Yes, Yes, 1000% Yes.

I was really lucky with my History curriculum in HS.
I had already taken World History (same textbook even) in 9th Grade at my school in Saudi Arabia so when I moved to Texas, I was able to skip having a Coach for History Class which seemed to be a dumping ground for Football Coaches.

11th Grade US History, I had one of the female teachers and 12th Grade Honors Government, I had a lady who was really excellent and treated us like college students which was an eye opener for somebody like me who never studied. I got my first bad grade ever on one her first test but I took solace in the fact that my 70% was the highest in the class. Then I realized she was serious about expecting us to actually read the textbook in addition to the fun class discussions.

I do thank my lucky stars that I only had one HS teacher who was a coach. That is a definite problem in Texas schools.

H2Ag said:

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Yeah while they were changing names I think they forgot the nazi with a large office complex at Redstone arsenal. On second thought maybe they agree with his earlier leanings?

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They only cared if he was also a Confederate.

I did a work project at Fort Rucker in early 2022. I have no idea what it's called now.

Daddy said:

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In this regardd you fiailed us father and that's why you know this so did many of us like seriously busting your ass to make sure she has the best money to go buy the best education the best education comes from home and that creates your father everyday I say you know what I need to spend more time with my kids I'm not let society YouTube TV the radio and definitely not Mark 16 spend hundreds of thousands of dollars online

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Did you use GPTChat to write that?

They speak English in What?

hph6203 said:

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Can we talk about whether our English classes are teaching us everything we need to know next?

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How about the number of times I need to correct the Autocorrect?

Especially when I'm "code switching" between US and UK English.

aggiejayrod said:

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To be fair, when you had history class, there were like 50 years of US history for them to teach.

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I do remember the Bicentennial vividly.
Bike parade in my hometown (at the time) of Valdez, Alaska.

My kids know about the Manhattan Project, but then, their mom works in the weapons complex, and I'm a buff of the history.

When I was in Los Alamos a few weeks ago, they were already bracing for a flood of tourists that they expected to begin showing up after the movie.

The historic society now owns the house Oppenheimer lived in (on Bathtub Row) but it needs a few million in repairs before it can have visitors

TxSquarebody said:

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Barbie was invented in Germany

aggiehawg said:

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Dorm 15 said:

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Why Los Alamos?

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Oppenheimer lived in Albuquerque and thought the Sangre de Cristo mountains would be private and far enough removed to maintain the secrecy needed.

His idea.

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Uh, no

He never lived in ABQ that I know of

He vacationed in the area, and loved it. There was a boys school on the plateau, he thought it would make a good beginning for a lab.

Lab had to be isolated, at least 500 miles from the coast, easy to secure, etc

Zarathustra said:

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Here's why nobody remembers Oppenheimer.

I've talked to a bunch of people that can't wait to see the movie but not one person has mentioned any interesting fact about Oppenheimer. I've seen a bunch of Twitter threads promoting the movie as well, but not one of them mentioned even the smallest quirky fact about him. Same with 2 pages of post in this thread.

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I could tell you a lot about Oppie, but I've studied a lot of the history and read a bunch of the books

My kids know quite a lot about him because their grandparents (my husband's parents) met when they were both stationed at Los Alamos when they were in the Army during WWII! My mother-in-law was in the WAC driver pool and drove several of the scientists and generals on and off the base (though never Oppenheimer). My father-in-law worked in administration and witnessed the first test explosion. They had great stories to tell.

They got married right after the war. I often tell people that my husband and sons wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for the creation of "the bomb!"

Dorm 15 said:

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aggiehawg said:

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Dorm 15 said:

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Why Los Alamos?

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Oppenheimer lived in Albuquerque and thought the Sangre de Cristo mountains would be private and far enough removed to maintain the secrecy needed.

His idea.

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During his late teenage years Oppenheimer was sickly and his father sent him to a "school" in what became Los Alamos. Indeed he liked the area.

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I don't recall that Oppie ever attended The Ranch School. I believe he first visited the area as an adult

Definitely Not A Cop said:

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aggiehawg said:

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Dorm 15 said:

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Why Los Alamos?

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Oppenheimer lived in Albuquerque and thought the Sangre de Cristo mountains would be private and far enough removed to maintain the secrecy needed.

His idea.

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Wasn't their original operation in Chicago? How quickly did they move out there?

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Chicago was the first sustained chain reaction. I'm drawing a blank as to where the Manhattan Project started. But as others said, there were sites all over the country. Los Alamos, Hanford, WA, Oak Ridge, TN etc etc

fc2112 said:

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My kids know a lot about the Manhattan Project. But then again, what I do for a living...

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Having worked with a drug kingpin's daughter in Sydney, I can say that I've always let my kids know exactly what I do for a living and even taken them to work a few times.

Of course nowadays with work from home, my youngest regularly mocks me with industry buzzwords - and it's actually pretty hilarious when she does her impression of me talking on a WebEx/Zoom call.

CanyonAg77 said:

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My kids know about the Manhattan Project, but then, their mom works in the weapons complex, and I'm a buff of the history.

When I was in Los Alamos a few weeks ago, they were already bracing for a flood of tourists that they expected to begin showing up after the movie.

The historic society now owns the house Oppenheimer lived in (on Bathtub Row) but it needs a few million in repairs before it can have visitors

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Yeah but you're practically a local.
And in the business.

I would bet my two daughters know a little something about Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project. I guarantee you my son probably can name some of the other scientists involved in the project. I doubt they learned much about it in school. Different kids have different interests, and those interests cause them to look into things in greater detail than they will in a classroom.

My son helped me build and set up deer stands, build duck blinds, brush the duck blinds, and he made every deer hunt I made from the age of 2 1/2, and every duck hunt but two from the age of 5 1/2. One deer lease was a 6 hour drive one way and the whole time I drove, or when working at the leases, he was asking about our involvement in wars. Nonstop questions. I think because of my dad's fighting in the Pacific and my grandfather's fighting in France my son developed a deep interest in history.

I don't think we covered the Manhattan Project in school, but we could have and I just don't remember it. Thinking about it though, I don't see how you can spend a whole year on American History and not have spent 15 minutes to half an hour on the Manhattan Project and the scientists that brought an end to the second world war, and the lives saved because of it.

fc2112 said:

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My kids know a lot about the Manhattan Project. But then again, what I do for a living...

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What do you do?

85aggie777 said:

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My kids know quite a lot about him because their grandparents (my husband's parents) met when they were both stationed at Los Alamos when they were in the Army during WWII! My mother-in-law was in the WAC driver pool and drove several of the scientists and generals on and off the base (though never Oppenheimer). My father-in-law worked in administration and witnessed the first test explosion. They had great stories to tell.

They got married right after the war. I often tell people that my husband and sons wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for the creation of "the bomb!"

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Very cool story. The "Limo" they often used to drive to Lamy (nearest RR depot, south of Santa Fe) is in the National Nuclear Museum in ABQ

hph6203 said:

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Can we talk about whether our English classes are teaching us everything we need to know next?

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GT English was where we learned who Oppenheimer was and held debates about the decision to use the bomb.

Quote:

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I am become death
Destroyer of worlds.

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But that was 1985 when I learned about him.

Well, family in the business. Which has lead to my visits to Trinity Site (twice) Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge. Have also been to a couple of the post WWII sites, Savannah River and Pantex. Pantex was a conventional munitions plant in WWII, reopened for nukes in the 1950s

For a buff, Trinity Site is a must. And starting this fall, it is highly likely that Los Alamos will be hosting tours to MP sites a few days before the Trinity Site open house in October.

These are MP sites that are currently behind the fence of the current Lab, and off limits to visitors.

Museums:

National Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque
Bradbury Museum, Los Alamos
County Historic Museum, Los Alamos
Oak Ridge Museum

My Analytical Chemistry Professor @ Texas A&M worked on the Manhattan Project. Dr. Whealy(? spelling). Fun guy, he gave pop major exams. Took his class twice, first time got a C and felt that was unacceptable based on my major. Drop added courses until I got his class again. Before the semester went to his office and told him I was going to ace his class, not going to miss a question. On the very first test, he took off a point on one of the questions which I knew was correct. Went to his office to see what happened, he smiled looked up and said I had 1 too many decimals in my answer based on the significance of the inputs. He kind of chuckled since my proclamation of acing his course.

I really liked him and appreciated his teaching. Last I saw him after the semester, I went up to see him, he was retired had a flannel shirt and hiking boots getting ready to go out the door.