Our Knowledge of America

[Paisley]

According to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute:

"A study of 14,000 college freshmen and seniors at 50 schools reveals:

• There is trivial difference between freshmen and seniors in their knowledge of America's heritage.
• 16 of 50 schools surveyed exhibited negative learning.
• Overall, seniors failed the civic literacy exam with an average score of 53%."

They offer a sample test to gauge your own knowledge of civics:
Test

 

[Serial Hero]

I scored 80% I missed the women’s right to vote question.:eusa_doh:

 

[LizzieMaine]

100 percent here -- civics (although it was called "Problems of Democracy" when I was in high school) was one of my favorite classes!

 

[Baron Kurtz]

100%, though it's not a particularly challenging test. Were it to have asked, for example What Year did women gain the right to vote, i'd be guessing ... (I assume this is NOT the test the students were taking)

bk

 

[deanglen]

Aced it. But I agree with Baron, it wasn't as tough as I would have expected. Didn't women get the vote in 1920?

dean

 

[The Captain]

My consumption of books, newspapers, etc. has served me well. My score was 100%, although I agree with the Baron, it wasn't too challenging.

 

[Elaina]

Women's right to vote

Was ammended in 1919.

Elaina

 

[Paisley]

There is an article about the 60-question test given to college students in today's Wall Street Journal (link is free).

Even though I detested social studies and history wasn't required at my college (you could take philosophy instead), I scored 100%. That's probably from watching PBS and reading the Wall Street Journal and other good publications.

I knew the era that women were given the right to vote by recalling photos of suffragettes in bustles, leg-of-mutton sleeves and big hats. Who says fashion is frivolous?

 

[deanglen]

Was ammended in 1919.

Elaina

I checked a source that indicates 19th Amendment passed on August 26th, 1920.

http://weeklywire.com/ww/08-31-98/alibi_skeleton.html

dean

 

[scotrace]

Also Fun

This one went around our inboxes awhile back. Snopes makes short work of it, but it is sort of interesting all the same.

Late 1800's exams that are supposed to tell us how much a student (and teacher) needed to know then. The questions are indeed tough, but the main point is that someone from 1879 couldn't pass a modern test in, for example, quantum theory or superconductivity, either.

 

[Mr. Sable]

How'd you feel about knowing a Canadian got 100% on the first test?

 

[Elaina]

My apologies. It was TEXAS that ratified the ammendment. I should remember it's not all about Texas huh?

Texas, June 28, 1919...was the date I was always taught.

Elaina

 

[Jack Scorpion]

Oh my god. I scored 80% -- somehow I got the first question wrong. Stupid John Locke.

 

[Archie Goodwin]

100% twice

I tried the link above and scored 100%. I also tried a slightly different test from msnbc about this same story and also scored 100%. The link to that quiz is below, and I think it is a little more difficult.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15013517/site/newsweek/

 

[Elaina]

Oddly, I got a 100% on it, but then I flubbed the voting thing in here. Go figure. I like history, and all I do is read. There's bound to be some mess ups somewhere in my head (because it shares space with cannibalism. Think that thought last week turned into Hannibal in my head. Yes, that's it. I'm using that.)

Now, in all seriousness, I knew better then to spout off at the lip. I had a few teachers that everything was given from when Texas did it, and I know I have to check my facts. Probably doesn't help in this one that a college professor of mine told us 1919 on the 19th Ammendment last semester.

Elaina

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

How'd you feel about knowing a Canadian got 100% on the first test?

I'd respond by saying we should start importing you guys down here!

Oh, and by the way, I got a 100% score. No great shakes though - it was an easy, short test that covered the very basics.

What terrifies me is that the average score was only 88%.

 

[Paisley]

The West Led the Way

Wyoming was first to grant women the right to vote in 1890; Colorado, Utah and Idaho followed in 1900. Read more here.

 

[deanglen]

Oddly, I got a 100% on it, but then I flubbed the voting thing in here. Go figure. I like history, and all I do is read. There's bound to be some mess ups somewhere in my head (because it shares space with cannibalism. Think that thought last week turned into Hannibal in my head. Yes, that's it. I'm using that.)

Now, in all seriousness, I knew better then to spout off at the lip. I had a few teachers that everything was given from when Texas did it, and I know I have to check my facts. Probably doesn't help in this one that a college professor of mine told us 1919 on the 19th Ammendment last semester.

Elaina

I didn't know the exact date, I just guessed and looked it up later. Wasn't trying to one up on you, Elaina, you give abundant evidence of sophistication and learning. Forgive me if you felt bad, can't find a way to communicate the proper tone with a keyboard.

Peace,
dean

 

[Elaina]

I am very tounge in cheek. It's kind of "oh d'oh!" with the hand to forehead. I have my moments of feeling stupid too.

I really don't take offense to anything. I've found out if I do my life is a lot harder.

Elaina

 

[Samsa]

I scored 60% on the test. I haven't taken any kind of civics or history course since 2000, which has given me plenty of time to forget facts. When studies like this come out, I always tend to resent the implications: students who do not score well are culpably ignorant. I remember, as an undergrad, having teachers concoct these tests, or shove results similar to these in our faces.

Each subject seems to have its spokesman, who insists that one must know a good deal about that topic in order to be an intelligent and informed person. The professor who taught physical science to me as an undergrad would have us all do a long division problem, to show how inept modern students were at doing math. Of course we were all mostly unable to do the problem, as we hadn't done that sort of thing by hand for over a decade. He would then show the results to his colleagues, as if to say, "here is another example of the MTV generation's ignorance."

Whenever these topics surface, I'm reminded of an exchange between Holmes and Watson in A Study in Scarlet:

'You see,' he explained, 'I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."

'But the solar system!' I protested.

'What the deuce is it to me?' he interrupted impatiently: 'you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.'​

Of course, my ire is not directed at anyone here. I guess I've just had this little rant brewing in me for quite some time.lol