Williams: Ignorance Reigns Supreme

[Terri]

By Walter E. Williams
December 3, 2008

How about a few civics questions? Name the three branches of government. If you answered the executive, legislative and judicial, you are more informed than 50 percent of Americans. The Delaware-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) recently released the results of their national survey titled "Our Fading Heritage: Americans Fail a Basic Test on Their History and Institutions." The survey questions were not rocket science.

Only 21 percent of survey respondents knew that the phrase "government of the people, by the people, for the people." comes from President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Almost 40 percent incorrectly believe the Constitution gives the president the power to declare war. Only 27 percent know the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States. Remarkably, close to 25 percent of Americans believe that Congress shares its foreign policy powers with the United Nations.

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[welder4]

What is doable and should be done is each person should have and study the Constitution and the bill of rights so they will know and can make an argument to make them do what they are sent to Washington to do and nothing else. An uninformed person is very vulnerable indeed.

[RiverKing]

The numbers Williams quotes are not very surprising to me but they are very depressing. I too am puzzled by what Williams reported in his last paragraph:

Roughly 70 percent of Americans, even those who failed the test, agreed that our history, culture and institutions are important and should be taught to our college students.

I suppose this says that those who failed the test realize their deficiency, assume it is common, and believe that these subjects should be taught in colleges. I'd go a step further and require them at all educational levels.

I followed up on this column and went to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute , looking for a breakdown of survey subjects. I did find a bit more detail but not the breakdown I was looking for. I wondered if there was any significant difference between various age groups, active military, journalists, elected or appointed officials, etc. The small sample though (2,508 of a US population of 225.7 million) would make any classification of results worthless.

While I was there, I did take the quiz. I found it very easy in parts and challenging in others. I missed only 1 question of 33 and I thought that was a trick question when I read it.

It might be interesting if others on this forum would take the ISI quiz and report their scores here. I'll bet my 97% is not the highest and most scores are well within the 90%-100% range for an 'A'.

[thomas]

Why would that suprise one? Government schools stopped teaching our children civics, modern history, political science, American History, Constitutional history, history of the civil war, WWI and II, Viet Nam, etc., etc or current affairs which would cover the current war against radical Islam, at least a generation ago. Again, why would anyone be suprised?
The Old Chief

[papajaxxx]

It might be interesting if others on this forum would take the ISI quiz and report their scores here. I'll bet my 97% is not the highest and most scores are well within the 90%-100% range for an 'A'.

Not mine, I scored a 75 which was the average.

[elmerck1]

I had a sneaking idea that the numbers were about right, and if you look at the last election, you will find out how ignorant about 60% of the electorate is in this country.The new Pres. should abolish the department of education ,because it does nothing toward teaching children, and only spends billions of dollars each year on beuracrats to sit on their butts, and do nothing.The money sent to washington for education should stay in the states, and be used to hire teachers that will teach kids something besides sex and who is going to be on the ball team

[Rubicon]

OK, I admit I was a bit of a bookworm when it came to history, civics & such. So what!
But come-on folks.... people cannot name the three branches of our government! Lets be real here folks. If we concentrate on teaching kids social justice agitation & demand they seek redress for any grievance they think someone has suffered by demanding courts issue rulings that amount to the creation of laws, how can we expect that our government will enforce the laws on the books or take us seriously on almost any issue?
I find it incredibly depressing that we have college students who think these things are not important. Freedom is NOT Free. It requires we always pay attention to history or we are doomed to repeat the failures of the past.
Average people over history have been forced to fight for the freedoms we have.
Our educators have failed us. How can they defend themselves when they allow the most important issues & facts to be completely overlooked? How can we be expected to pay out more & more for education systems when we find students incapable of making change at a local eatery, mini market, or newspaper outlet?
The basics may not be glamorous, but w/o them, all we have are dummies looking to someone to solve their problems. We have dummies who want politicians to fix whatever is broken. Like we can trust those folks!? Right!
It really does start at the local level. We need to make sure educators are actually educating kids. No more touchy feel-ly stuff. Lets make sure kids can function in everyday life.
Obama's Annenberg Challenge Education Fund rejected a request for funds to teach algebra to inner city kids through the "Algebra Project." This happened when Obama & Ayers ran the Annenberg Challenge & dispensed over one hundred million dollars. They did fund programs that promoted racial & social justice & taught kids how to be community organizers (read: rabble rouser's). So they funded activist agitating, but they refused to fund actual education projects that would have led to JOBS & prosperity for the very kids they were supposed to be elevating out of poverty & the gwat neighborhoods where they learned how to sell drugs & buy illegal guns to kill rivals with!
Hopefully many parents have taken up the challenge to teach many of this nations most critical facts to their kids at home. While it should be done in schools, at least some parents know the schools are failing their kids so they must take up the slack.
Educators demand we fund them, w/o limitations. Union educators demand we forget providing school vouchers & eliminate school choice options. In California they tried to end Home Schooling. Is it because they want to dumb down our kids into automaton liberal lockstep socialists or because the educators themselves have been so brainwashed they do not realize how pathetic they are?
Its up to us to get involved in everyday issues at home. The school board may not be happy to see me at meetings, but I do what I can to keep them honest! And I never had kids!!!

[Rubicon]

I took riverking's advise & took the ISI test.
OK, so Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, & Aquinas got me. Who knew that certain permanent moral & political truths are accessible to human reason?
OK, so all of you did!
I was doing great until that question. Where they came up with those folks in an American civics test is beyond me!
I'd love to administer that quiz to groups of kids at the local high school. Bet those kids would just love me after that, huh?!?