It has been suggested in recent research that one in every five children in the UK thinks that the spaceman from the Toy Story films, Buzz Lightyear, was the first person to ever get to the moon and walk on it!

The study revealed in fact that twice as many knew it was a man called Mr Armstrong (Lance the Tour De France winner rather than Neil, though!) but still that leaves a significant number who didn't even know or who thought the fictional character (complete with laser beams, and a built-in force field) actually lived and breathed and went to the moon!

One third of the children asked could not name the inventor ot the telephone, who is Alexander Bell.  Noel Edmonds was even suggested as an answer.  Ten percent thought Rolf Harris painted the Mona Lisa and just over 10% considered Albert Einstein to be the brother of Frankenstein.  Apparently, 12% said that the battle of Britain happened in space (!) and one in six made out that the Daleks from Dr Who did at some point occupy Britain.

There were some 2,000 children questioned for the study, aged between 6 and 12 years old.  The questions were history based and also asked about current famous people.  The results showed that the children know much more about celebrities, television and film stars rather than important people from history.

However, we need to deal with this research carefully as it was conducted by the people launching the new Wallbook entitled What on Earth?. The wallbook features a time chart detailing all the major events that have taken place.  So, it was really a marketing ploy (with purposefully tricky questions, perhaps) rather than a scientific study.

Even so, perhaps we need to feed our children a more balanced knowledge!