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ecshafer

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The average person probably only knows the formulas for olivine and one or two feldspars.

And quartz of course!

(Reference for those wondering: https://xkcd.com/2501/)

> Jumping to “AI” is a bit much.

Do you remember the tariffs list debacle? One line of thought is that AI generated that fiasco.

https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/us/did-donald...

This is hilarious. You think middle school students know about the Avignon papacy? They don't even know about the Ford presidency.

This was definitely covered in my middle school classes (although those were 40 years ago). Standard US public school. We spent a fair amount of time discussing the Antipope, it always sounded like such a cool job name.

We also read Genesis in English classes (from a literary perspective).

I think you are missing the key qualifier with a passing interest in history. I absolutely knew of the avignon papacy in middle school.

I have more than a passing interest in history and this is the first I heard of the Avignon Papacy, which I of course never heard of in middle school.

Even in France I'm willing to bet the majority of people outside of Avignon have no idea about it.

Any history major with interest in medieval Europe, yes, any middle schooler? No way.

It was part of the elementary school curriculum in Finland in the 90s, and it sounds like something that would have been in the traditional curriculum for earlier generations.

The Finnish term translates as "Avignon captivity" rather than the more neutral "Avignon Papacy", which could be a clue. It's easy to imagine that a traditional Protestant society would use a debacle like that to illustrate how silly those Catholics and their power struggles are and why the Reformation was necessary.

Despite being a middle schooler with more than a passing interest in history I only learned about it when I started playing Crusader Kings in my adulthood.

Yeah, no, that's an insane claim to make. Obviously American education covers some information about religion in history classes, but that level of detail about catholic history is not normal curriculum for elementary, middle, or high school.

Can confirm - I had an excellent, Christian School education through Middle School, and even we didn't hear about that.

In France History is a very big part of the curriculum (almost a quarter of the time until you get to high school) and this episode is barely mentioned despite happening in our very country.

I am not talking about what American education covers nor the average American. But what people with an interest in History, who are reading history books, watching history documentaries, etc. would know. Avignon is not that deep.

You literally started: "Any middle schooler...", and now you claim you aren't discussing education?

Read the next 4 words past that. Middle schooler refers to an age group as well.

No - I had a bunch of history and did not encounter that.

No, they really aren't. But I wouldn't put it past "trad" types.

Where did you go to middle school lol

Avignon probably.

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