So I got this random press release in an e-mail (I get a lot of them) talking about how college students these days have no idea about the meaning of the 4th of July, the history of the Declaration of Indepence and a lot of other civic subjects that we used to be required to know to graduate. I was skeptical, of course, since everyone wants a sensational headline about how crappy our schools are. How many stories have you heard about how 70% of students didn't know Canada was the country to our north or there are 50 states in the U.S.? That just can't be true.
However, I read on. It turns out there was a 60 question mulitple choice quiz on a number of history related subjects. Some of the questions were easy, some were hard, some were ridiculous (anyone read up on Keynesian economics lately?). I took the quiz and was suprised and a little upset to only score a 76 even though I whipped through the test without a lot of thought. I thought I was good at this stuff even if I haven't been in a classroom in a long time. Then I saw that the average score was a 62!!! These aren't high school students, these are college students!
Lest you think they did the tests at some lower end institutions one of the schools included was Cornell - an Ivy League University! The freshmen there got an average of 72 while the seniors only averaged 62!! Apparently you get dumber at Cornell over four years. Can you get a refund? (I went to Dartmouth and I kicked their asses even after killing my brain with rock music and other things for the last 17 years!) Anyway, they also identified 6 questions as specifically related to July 4th and I'm happy to say that I got 5 of those 6 right too.
Now I don't know if this group has a hidden agenda or not, but at face value they seem to just want to improve the quality of education in America. They state that they are non-profit, non-partisan and are not government funded. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Want to try it for yourself? Here's the link: http://www.americancivicliteracy.org. The button for the quiz is just down the page on the right. Good luck and have a happy 4th.
However, I read on. It turns out there was a 60 question mulitple choice quiz on a number of history related subjects. Some of the questions were easy, some were hard, some were ridiculous (anyone read up on Keynesian economics lately?). I took the quiz and was suprised and a little upset to only score a 76 even though I whipped through the test without a lot of thought. I thought I was good at this stuff even if I haven't been in a classroom in a long time. Then I saw that the average score was a 62!!! These aren't high school students, these are college students!
Lest you think they did the tests at some lower end institutions one of the schools included was Cornell - an Ivy League University! The freshmen there got an average of 72 while the seniors only averaged 62!! Apparently you get dumber at Cornell over four years. Can you get a refund? (I went to Dartmouth and I kicked their asses even after killing my brain with rock music and other things for the last 17 years!) Anyway, they also identified 6 questions as specifically related to July 4th and I'm happy to say that I got 5 of those 6 right too.
Now I don't know if this group has a hidden agenda or not, but at face value they seem to just want to improve the quality of education in America. They state that they are non-profit, non-partisan and are not government funded. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Want to try it for yourself? Here's the link: http://www.americancivicliteracy.org. The button for the quiz is just down the page on the right. Good luck and have a happy 4th.
