I have been saying for some time now that we, the American people, have become pretty stupid. Where education was once valued and desired, it is now reviled. For the last decade or more, our education system was affronted with No Child Left Behind, possibly one of the worst educational blunders we’ve experienced. But it’s not just Bush who did this (one only has to look to our Hail to the Chimp daily dose of Bush’s sheer ignorance and stupidity). No, this has been going on longer than that. Examples you say? Ok. How about whole word learning versus phonetics? Maybe that the Constitution Test is no longer mandatory for grade and high school students to graduate.
So, this begs the question: Just how stupid have we become?
The following are snips from the book How Ignorant Are We? The Voters Choose… but on the Basis of What? By Rick Shenkman. These statistics come from varying studies done over the last 20 years.
- 25% of Americans cannot name more than one of the five freedoms granted by the First Amendment.
- 20% know that there are 100 senators. 25% knew a US senator’s term is six years.
- 40% can correctly identify and name the three branches of government. (Ed note: the author found this encouraging!)
- Most Americans cannot name their own member of Congress or their senators.
- 34% know that it is the Congress that declares war.
- 35% know that Congress can override a presidential veto.
- 49% think the president can suspend the Constitution.
- 60% believe that he can appoint judges to the federal courts without the approval of the Senate.
- 45% believe that revolutionary speech is punishable under the Constitution.
Ok, that’s politics. What about more general knowledge? Funny you should ask.
How’s this for how we scored on correct answers:
- 5% could correctly answer three-fourths of the questions asked about economics.
- 11% of the questions about domestic issues.
- 14% of the questions about foreign affairs
- 10% of the questions about geography.
- 25% knew the correct answers to three-quarters of the history questions, which were rudimentary.
So, 25% of Americans could answer three-quarters of basic history questions. That was the highest score received. Twenty-five percent! I don’t know about you, but I find that abysmal at best. One of the scariest results of this level of collective ignorance was this:
In 2003, the Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad investigated Americans’ knowledge of world affairs. The task force concluded: “America’s ignorance of the outside world” is so great as to constitute a threat to national security.
Gee, ya think?
A very interesting article. Read the whole thing here.
Click it if you liked it! 
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24 Comments
July 2, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Ms J,
It goes further.
Miniblue is attending college this fall and had to take an assessment test in english and math.
The college’s stat’s say that ~ 75-80% of the freshmen have to take one to two courses of math just to get up to college level math. This is a community college, btw. Not MIT.
(not that this is ‘dummy school’. A lot of retired Harvard and MIT professors retire to the Cape and teach part time at the college.)
English - about 50% need a refresher course.
Sad.
Miniblue also has more student services provided to her at the college than at her high school.
Why are we doing things so ass-backwards?
July 2, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Why? Because few get to college and that is by design. Ignorant people are complaint people. College costs money so it serves two purposes:
1) to ensure that those who have continue to have and have more, and
2) those who barely have hock everything so that their kids can try to succeed without going $60k into debt for a college education.
This last one ensures servitude for kids who walk out of college with such enormous debt that their $25-30k salaries will never enable them to live comfortably - for the 10 or more years it takes to pay off that debt.
There is no way this is not by design. Subprime mortgages, credit card ripoffs, and all that…when did we start seeing all the commercials for student loans? At the same time we saw Refi and mortgage commercials 24/7.
July 2, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Working in education, I see this more and more. All No Child Left Behind did was to encourage our teachers to create children who could answer questions on standardized tests and did nothing to encourage our youth to learn how to learn.
It scares me when I walk by classrooms and see students who blindly listen to the instructor and never, ever ask questions. It reminds me of the media….
July 2, 2008 at 12:33 pm
I’ve got mixed feelings on this. Ask most adults the same shit we ask kids and you’ll get the same result. I am not making an excuse for my profession. I just think it is one of those deals where individuals see their own educational experience unrealistically relative to a bigger phenomenon. I also think a strong case can be made that modern younger learners are “information seekers” but not “information holders”. Overall IQ has consistently risen. Are our kids dumber? I don’t know but they sure as hell tackle problem solving, self motivation, data management, and intrapersonal skills a whole lot different than I.
July 2, 2008 at 12:39 pm
DB, it wasn’t just kids who were in those stats. It was adults, too.
I, myself, lumped it into education because there is little value for learning. It’s easier to listen blindly to what you are told rather than to think, process, and question - to add to learning (often by rote).
It’s not just kids who are dumber, it is us as a whole. This didn’t just happen in the last few years. This was a couple decades in the making.
Remember that statistic from, what was it, about a year ago that something like one in four read a book in the prior year? Sad. Seriously sad.
July 2, 2008 at 12:44 pm
The conditions which give rise to this sort of thing are N-dimensional. I just am not convinced that we were ever any brighter. I find that instructional practices from the past fail to properly assess and mesh with the learning process of many of the current learners. Mind you I still think they have a serious responsibility in terms on getting on the educational bus and actually giving a shit!
July 2, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I have heard theories as to why. They make for interesting thought. One is that because of the digital age, we don’t have to use our memories. We just look things up. Using your memory and exercising it helps to develop the brain instead of shut it down. Anyone here ever hear of memory palaces or the method of loci? Interesting stuff.
July 2, 2008 at 2:24 pm
OMFG!
Have you guys seen this:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/08/hitchens200808
Video:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/video/2008/hitchens_video200808
Christopher Hitchens took the challenge and was waterboarded to see if it was just “intense interrogation” or was it really torture.
Needless to say, the name of his article is “Believe me, it’s torture/”
July 2, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Spudge, yes I saw it. My favorite line was:
Why don’t we see Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell and Rice ponying up to the test?
Right. Cowards every one (and yes, I am including Powell)!
July 2, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Ms J, I call it the dumbing down of America. My daughter is going to be 20 in a couple of months. I would help her and several of her friends when they were in school to study for tests. The reason you ask, not just to be a good parent but, none of them knew any studying skills. Bluedahlia, has a very good point about the computer age. Their point was it is unless information, hence they never developed good memorization skills, like I did for example and my husband.
The percentages you found don’t surprise me in the least. Basic facts that Nick & I learned in school many she had never even heard of. There idea of history class isn’t the same as it use to be. All of her friends came to me when they opened checking accounts because they didn’t know how to balance a checkbook, that one scared me the most. That was part of my high school course called single survival.
Her high school did not offer a Speech Course, that one blew me away. I believe everyone should have to take that. The reason, it taught critical thinking skills, how to debate, how to talk to a group of people, how to do research at a college level, and how to put together a thesis. I learned more from that one class and that teacher, than I did most of the other classes I took. Miss Dye, was the teacher’s name, what she did was challenge each and everyone of us every day to question and to gain as much knowledge as we could. We have lost many good educators also, and I’m not slamming the good teachers out there that do make a difference. But out of all the teachers my daughter had I can count on one hand how many I would consider on the level of Miss Dye. That is a very tragic statement. When you have no passion in teaching, it shows in the students they are bored and looking at their watches counting the minutes til the class ends. They are not energized or inspired to learn or to question.
July 2, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I would never slam the teachers. I think they are hamstrung worrying whether their students would be able to pass mandates tests. At what point do we include critical thinking into the curriculum? When do we teach them how to learn, not what to learn but HOW?
As you said, FR, we don’t which is going to be the downfall for sure.
How do you fix things when you can barely understand what’s wrong?
July 2, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I have a 20 year old and a 13 year old. I fear for the future.
The rich send their kids to private schools, which don’t fall under NCLB. They get real educations, while the rest of us have to send our kids to public schools that do fall under NCLB.
So, while their kids are learning how to take care of themselves and prosper in this country, the rest of the kids are only being taught how to take tests.
One group will be the future leaders of this country and the rest will be the working class. There won’t be a middle class. That is being destroyed right now.
At this point, I don’t know how else to get people to wake up. I am sad all of the time now. I feel helpless against the coming storm. All I’ll have is an “I told you so.” to everyone I know, while I sit in a Haliburton correctional camp.
July 2, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Spudge, I completely agree with you.
Maybe we’ll be in the same camp. I am not one to re-educate well. I can’t ever be a sheeple.
July 2, 2008 at 4:58 pm
That is what I asked my dad the other day.
I was young and stupid at one time. I signed up to fight in Desert Storm, so I could kill “towel heads” Since that time, I have grown up and see how stupid I was.
I changed. I asked my dad how he could do it. How does he think I can go back to hating people that haven’t done anything to me. How am I supposed to go back to hating an entire color of people because a few of them are whackos.
I asked him if I should hate Christians because of the God hates Fags people. How can I hate one religion because of their whackos, but ignore the whackos in another.
I aksed how am I supposed to stop having empathy for those who are less fortunate. How can I start refering to the poor people born into poverty as “lazy” instead of underprivelaged.
I ask him how I can do those things when he and my mother raised me to not be that way.
I asked him how he did it and he had no answer.
July 2, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I have worked in the school system for awhile, and I have seen too many teachers that shouldn’t have chosen that career path. I’m not slamming the majority Ms J, it’s the ones that bring derision into the classroom. This is just what I have experienced with my children and working in this district. I work with teenagers and children with disabilities so I have a unique perspective that most don’t ever experience.
Many are very compassionate, but my son has had a couple of teachers that I consider unfit to educate. One was fired for misconduct (tormenting) when my son was in elementary school. My son has severe disabilities and I almost had to take the school system to court on at least three different occassions because of abusive behavior or torment. One boy that graduated last year had to write a paper about his experiences growing up in school. In his paper he wrote about school personnel that had locked him in a closet, mind you he is in a wheelchair. Yes, this person is still employed and working at the high school now. (She is an older woman) Many of us just shook our heads and couldn’t believe that the school system kept her.
I am not the only parent in the system that has had to fight this battle. We have a large population in my district of Autism, ADD, ADHD, Asperger’s , Mild Mental Retardation & others.
Critical Thinking should be address in High School, imho. There are many programs that could be implemented to include this. (i.e. College Level Speech, Debate Class, and History Classes that take on issues of the past, as some examples.
Another problem is that school systems lack good books also. What passes today for books in Science is a joke. unbelievable & I were talking about this at TP. She stopped teaching in school districts and is now teaching in colleges because of that issue alone.
We need to actually start addressing the issues one at a time to solve the problem. The big difference with my school system and another one I have observed that is doing fantastic, is attitude. Which trickles down from the administration to the teachers and then to the students. This school system graduated 85% of it’s class at a 3.5 grade average and above. That is impressive. Ms J, you know what they did to solve the problem. They got rid of several people in the administration and retired some teachers that weren’t performing and replaced them. Within two years they went from an under achieving school district to one of the best in the state. That is what I call progress, I am so proud that their district addressed all the problems they were having. I only wish it would happen in mine, I have been fighting an uphill battle for years. It has been exhausting, “but a mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
Hats off- great post MsJ
July 2, 2008 at 5:25 pm
OMG! They locked a child in a wheelchair in a closet? I am floored.
When I was in 2nd grade, my teacher tied one of the kids to his chair and beat him with her slipper. Granted, he was one of the total shit kids (the next year, they had a special classroom for about 15 of the kids who had behavioral issues) but still. I was pretty flipped out about it.
I disagree with you that critical thinking should be taught at the HS level. It should begin at the elementary school level. There is nothing wrong with teaching 5th graders how to think. I got my introduction in 4th grade (albeit in a way I could have lived without…I did not handle graphic discussions of the holocaust well at that age. For two days I went home at lunch and refused to go back to school that day.)
Ah, yes…books. You mean the ones who are printed by the far right morons who include such drivel as intelligent design as science or global warming as a discussion? Right. Those.
I think Spudge said it best. We are “stuck” with whomever teachers we get (and that is not meant in any way, shape or form as a slam to teachers, but not all are great) yet the private schools have different curricula, standards and expectations. Wholly unfair and the way we will wind up completely splitting those who have and have not in perpetuity because of that education (or lack thereof).
July 2, 2008 at 6:14 pm
You have got a very good point about elementary school and critical thinking. We had some classes that I would consider now that I look back to have some critical thinking involved.
The parachial schools and private schools in our area have a much better education system than the regular school districts. I agree completely. Their students score consistantly higher on SAT’s.
Some of it has to do with pay scale also. Certain districts pay more than others here, in some cases we are talking a 20k to 25k difference. That is huge gap. If you look at how those districts do academically, they are light years ahead of the rest.
Have a great night Ms Joanne, it was good talking to you..
July 2, 2008 at 6:20 pm
It is always good talking to (and reading) you. I love your posts on TP. You’re one of my favs, to be sure.
Cheers!
July 2, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I think Spudge said it best. We are “stuck” with whomever teachers we get (and that is not meant in any way, shape or form as a slam to teachers, but not all are great) yet the private schools have different curricula, standards and expectations. Wholly unfair and the way we will wind up completely splitting those who have and have not in perpetuity because of that education (or lack thereof).
I am no communist, despite what some on the right would say, but I do not believe that every single thing in our society should be reduced to being a commodity, for sale on the “free market” (which is not open to those without money, but who still have the need, and the right, for that matter, to some of those things, like education, healthcare, a competent government which, by definition, would have to exclude conservatives because they do not know how to govern in the best interests of the people who, through proper education, can learn to correctly punctuate long run-on sentences such as this.)
July 2, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Wayne, LOL!
You could be a good Gooper, for they are either seriously dumb or greedy.
July 2, 2008 at 7:41 pm
I think Denmark has it right. They see a college education and health care as an investment. Your country is better when everybody is educated and healthy.
And I for one don’t think everybody SHOULD go to college. You can’t make somebody smart.
But, those that do want higher education should get it.
July 2, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I agree with Denmark.
I think the elites of this country would prefer to dumb down the rest of us.. If people are educated, then they become more politically active. If we are dumb, poor, and dependent, then we don’t have the time, energy, or understanding to care what’s happening in government. The masses are easier to control that way, and are less likely to do anything to rock the political boat or challenge the government.
I think that has something to do with this ‘gutting’ of the middle class in this country, and the disintegration or dismantling of our education system and our social programs. Put that with removing any and all of the protections citizens have had in this country, and we are all at risk. When we are at risk, we most definitely aren’t going to jeopardize losing what little we have.
I think there are those that want just that.
July 2, 2008 at 11:28 pm
A Nation at Risk came out in 1983. It lambasted our educational system. Things have gotten worse since then. Much worse.
And, yes, it’s by design. If the public schools are all deemed failing, and, under No Child Left Behind, that designation is inevitable, it will be easier to get Vouchers passed.
Now Vouchers is a code word for another tax-break for the wealthy. Those who are already sending their kids to private schools will get reimbursed for doing so.
I used to be opposed to Vouchers. Not any more. Let the rich get their tax break. The current educational system is broken beyond the ability for any political solution to fix.
Quality education demands dedicated teachers. But our educational system demands compliant teachers. Compliant teachers to create compliant students. Quality teachers, by and large, are forced out of the system. Roughly half of all teachers leave the profession within 5 years.
There is a sizable pool of quality teachers who have been disillusioned. I propose to create a nation-wide school system, staffed by those very individuals and give them the freedom to do what they love to do: to teach. And empower them to run their own schools.
So yes, I would use a Voucher system and create the very thing the powers that be fear the most: an educated, thinking populace.
July 3, 2008 at 6:06 pm
The issues and lack of knowledge discussed in the article become even more evident when speaking to anyone from another country. They know so much more about our own country’s history than anyone in my generation–the 20 somethings. There was so much left out of my education, and it is embarrassing.
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