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[Jennings]

I attended public schools in the 80s.

From constantly reminding and 'preparing' us for The Big One (a long overdue San Andreas earthquake), to warning and drilling us for nuclear war (the Cold War was still on at the time), to informing us there were only about 50 years worth of oil and gas left before society would revert to the stone age, to over-population (we had 4.5 billion people at the time, which itself was even touted as wholly unsustainable) and a subsequent famine, it seemed like there was a new lesson to be learned every year about the many ways in which the world would probably end in our lifetimes.

That helpless feeling sort of sticks with you.

 

[AlteredForms]

I thought it was game over when the Y2K bug was about to hit. Everywhere on the news made it out to be something catastrophic, akin to judgement day when the skies were raining brimstone and the Four Housemen were acting a fool in the neighbourhood. I was a clueless child and bought into everything about this event, and it didn't help that kids older than me were fanning the flames about how it was the end times. On 1st Jan 2000 I attend school and my teacher casually walks in and says that it's been sorted.

The End

 

[StateofMajora]

They didn't, might have said something about nukes that could happen.

Until my economic teacher basically said the way the world is set up for unlimited economic growth will eventually kill us... But then told us how to save for retirement lol

 

[Fbh]

Nothing as extreme.
I think the first mention of the world ending probably came in science class when we learned the sun would die in 7 billion years lol
We also got the whole speech about oil running out but more in a "we'll have to find new sources of energy" kinda way, not as apocalyptic

 

[Rentahamster]

They didn't. I learned all the ways we can fuck up humanity mostly on my own.

 

[GloveSlap]

That the Sun would expand and consume the Earth near the end of it's life.

 

[Kev Kev]

 

[Kraz]

When the sun went nova with whatever advanced life that remained on the planet.

 

[winjer]

That the Sun would expand and consume the Earth near the end of it's life.

Probably the same thing. But I don't remember if I was taught in school, or if I saw it in a physics documentary at the time.

Regardless, something happening 4.5 billion from now, is NOT going to affect me.

 

[Lady Jane]

Yeah there was a section on globalism in my history book.

 

[ManaByte]

They said the world would end not long after people started to publicly display their pronouns.

 

[Catphish]

Catholic school, so…

Jesus

 

[TheDreadBaron]

The book of revelations. We didn’t actually spend much time on it, but that was the official party line.

 

[killatopak]

Why the fuck would someone teach gradeschoolers how the world would end.

The closest it could get was me being taught about cool dinosaurs and them going extinct by way of meteor and thinking human life could end in the same way.

Earliest someone actuallu said life could end was in physics class in highschool by way of heat death, solar flares and shit.

 

[Blade2.0]

I thought it was game over when the Y2K bug was about to hit. Everywhere on the news made it out to be something catastrophic, akin to judgement day when the skies were raining brimstone and the Four Housemen were acting a fool in the neighbourhood. I was a clueless child and bought into everything about this event, and it didn't help that kids older than me were fanning the flames about how it was the end times. On 1st Jan 2000 I attend school and my teacher casually walks in and says that it's been sorted.

The End

You don't get new years off?

Edit: how the world would end or humanity?

 

[p_xavier]

That the Sun would expand and consume the Earth near the end of it's life.

Same here.

 

[Lunarorbit]

I graduated from hs in 2000. I don't remember my public school really talking about the end of the world. Y2K happened but not many people I knew actually owned a computer and it was mostly a joke even before it happened.

In college I took ecology and environmental science courses and potable water was always a big one in my mind for people dying off.

 

[Kraz]

Catholic school, so…

Jesus

Somewhere between Grade 9 to 11 we had some stuff on eschatology in public school.

One had Joseph Campbell or Watts giving their take on how the the end of the world in the Bible only describes the end of the ancient Christian view of the world describing remaining follower conditions and how they react to it. Not supernatual prophesy so much as ancient psychology, let's say like Asimov's Foundation.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Same here.

Same here. Boy, some answers in this thread.

 

[p_xavier]

Same here. Boy, some answers in this thread.

I was lucky to have an unpoliticized education.

 

[p_xavier]

Catholic school, so…

Jesus

About that, I did a year of middle school in France. Was a program for unprivileged kids. The end of the World tapestries in Angers were both haunting and traumatizing.

The Spectacular Tapestry of the Apocalypse in Angers Castle

The Tapestry of the Apocalypse in Angers Castle, Anjou, is one of the most impressive medieval tapestries in the world.

www.tripsavvy.com

 

[thefool]

I don't really remember the apocalypse being part of the school program.

 

[NoLootBoxDev]

They never mentioned it in any meaningful way. In the other way around, I keep saying the end is near, bible things, aliens, and similar

 

[p_xavier]

They never mentioned it in any meaningful way. In the other way around, I keep saying the end is near, bible things, aliens, and similar

 

[Ownage]

That helpless feeling sort of sticks with you.

It did, until I realized how stupid most people are. After understanding and realizing I can take control of my life, and minimize influence of many, I began to make smart choices. Some were difficult, including cutting out some family and friends, but in the end became stronger, more self sufficient, and worried less about what the fear mongering du jour would be re: world or local events.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Nuclear. It was fun. We even had a little production play where teens came into the school to act a play about our own town freaking out over the threat of nuclear war..

Plus we had these winners







God bless the mental 80's, I guess kids now have all this woke crap to look back on and scorn..

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Acid Rain

 

[Pagusas]

oh it was during the time of Furn Gully and captain planet, so pretty sure they tried to tell us deforestation would be what killed us (and paper grocery bags… my how times have changed)

 

[Mistake]

Global warming because of Al Gore, which my school got into, but after 9/11 the doomsday prophecies kind of stopped tbh

 

[BadBurger]

My ninth grade earth science teacher taught us about what will happen to the sun when it becomes a red giant, and also about the heat death of the universe.

 

[AJUMP23]

I was home schooled.

 

[MastaKiiLA]

I went to catholic school so.....fire and brimstone? Something about horsemen riding, stars falling from the sky, and everyone being turned into an alter boy for the biggest child predator on the planet. That last part might be a bit hazy, but it sounds about right.

It's wild that they can teach theology to a kid in the same school day that they teach science. Theology class exists only to pad out your GPA with an easy A.

 

[Nico_D]

The world actually ends when the sun goes nova. Everything before that is just ripples in history.

 

[Pejo]

Like a few others in the thread, my first exposure to this was when the sun expands.

Really made me think. No matter how long lasting and important everything we see/interact with, it's all just incredibly temporary in a cosmic scale.

At the time, that scared the shit out of me, like I thought I was going to live to see it happen. Now it's a comforting thought after I had my existential adult crises, and it's the only thing that keeps me sane, thinking about the mundane stuff I worry about and how little it actually matters.

 

[GymWolf]

Most of my teachers in college were communists so they usually attributed the end of the world to berlusconi.

 

[pramod]

I think they made us watch The Day After.

 

[FunkMiller]

Did they at all talk about how dreadful the American educational system was going to get?

 

[Nobody_Important]

They didn't?

Then again I didn't grow up in a religious school so maybe I dodged a cultish shaped bullet there.

 

[SJRB]

It was a Christian school, so the rapture.

God was gonna get ya! He's gonna kill you and your entire family! Unless you behaved, of course.

Great times, great times.

 

[Kraz]

Pretty sure it was Grade 5 where school introduced the Sun expanding.

 

[Superkewl]

I attended elementary school in the 80's, so we were constantly lead to believe the Soviets would kill us.

 

[Daneel Elijah]

With the Sun like a few others in the thread. But I also got a few overpopulation/nuclear/ecology teachers who had their own vision. Why are the teachers so cynical?

 

[donfonzie]

 

[DeceptiveAlarm]

Thankfully apocalypse and impending doom barely came up in 2nd grade op.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Nothing really apocalyptic, but maybe because a huge drugs scare and stuff like Robocop 2 made the possibility of falling foul of drugs one way or another seem much more near and concrete than an actual apocalypse.

But I’m a child of the 80s, so pollution, Chernobyl, the ozone layer hole and the apparently imminent exhaustion of fossil fuels did come up frequently as good candidates for humanity’s end. Doom looked much realer than smartphones and 85” TVs.

 

[AlteredForms]

You don't get new years off?

Edit: how the world would end or humanity?

I'm not sure about the date we attended. Yes, they made it out that the world AND humanity would both end.

 

[Ionian]

School didn't teach it here, Catholic schools no less. The old testaments had the apocalypse, not the new testaments with Jesus.

My father told me about the sun expanding as a child, frightened the shit out of me. Then again he also told me there's no video games in heaven.

Years later The Sun didn't expand but rather contracted. They removed page 3.

I miss those boobs, such a dumb choice. Screw Murdoch and his control over The Sun.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Schools taught us facts and to understand things like war, slavery, and the holocaust. Today teachers bite down hard at the expense of the students parents wishes.

 

[Umbasaborne]

At this rate, the sun will cook the planet alive, the ice caps will melt, there will be less livable land for people. Violent devastating storms will be common place, wars for fuel, food, and water will take place, and all the while we will sit here, powerless, and large corporations let the world burn tomorrow so they can make a buck today. everything is fucking hopeless.

 

[AJUMP23]

School didn't teach it here, Catholic schools no less. The old testaments had the apocalypse, not the new testaments with Jesus.

My father told me about the sun expanding as a child, frightened the shit out of me. Then again he also told me there's no video games in heaven.

Years later The Sun didn't expand but rather contracted. They removed page 3.

I miss those boobs, such a dumb choice. Screw Murdoch and his control over The Sun.

The NT has a much more intense apocalypse in it. Read Revelation. It gets rough.

I don't know that there are no video games in eternity. This idea that there is no technology but some agrarian society is a misnomer. Now certainly if there is a video game it would be different because the concept of death would not exist. I don't know if a video game would have a failure state.