CE Week #14: “In basic civics, Americans get ‘F’”
So much for the wisdom of The People.
A new report from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute on the nation’s civic literacy finds that most Americans are too ignorant to vote.
Out of 2,500 American quiz-takers, including college students, elected officials and other randomly selected citizens, nearly 1,800 flunked a 33-question test on basic civics. In fact, elected officials scored slightly lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent compared to 49 percent.
Only 0.8 percent of all test-takers scored an “A.”
America’s report card may come as little surprise to fans of Jay Leno’s man-on-the-street interviews, which reveal that most people don’t know diddly about doohickey. Still, it’s disheartening in the wake of a populist-driven election celebrating joes-of-all-trades to be reminded that the voting public is dumber than ever.
The multiple-choice quiz wouldn’t deepen the creases in most brains, but the questions do require a basic knowledge of how the U.S. government works.
Think fast: In what document do the words “government of the people, by the people, for the people” appear? More than twice as many people (56 percent) knew that Paula Abdul was a judge on “American Idol” than knew that those words come from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (21 percent).
In good news, more than 80 percent of college graduates gave correct answers about Susan B. Anthony, the identity of the commander in chief of the U.S. military and the content of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
But don’t pop the cork yet. Only 17 percent of college grads understood the difference between free markets and centralized planning.
Then again, we can’t blame the children for what they haven’t been taught. Civics courses, once a staple of junior and high school education, are no longer considered important in our quantitative, leave-no-child-behind world. And college adds little civic knowledge, the study found. The average grade for those holding a bachelor’s degree was just 57 percent – only 13 points higher than the average score of those with only a high school diploma.
Most bracing: Only 27 percent of elected officeholders in the survey could identify a right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Forty-three percent didn’t know what the Electoral College does. And 46 percent didn’t know that the Constitution gives Congress power to declare war.
What’s behind the dumbing down of America?
The institute found that passive activities, such as watching television (including TV news) and talking on the phone, diminish civic literacy.
Actively pursuing information through print media and participating in high-level conversations – even, potentially, blogging – makes one smarter.
The institute insists that higher-education reforms aimed at civic literacy are urgently needed. Who could argue otherwise?
But historian Rick Shenkman, author of “Just How Stupid Are We?” thinks reform needs to start in high school. His strategy is both poetic (to certain ears) and pragmatic: Require students to read newspapers, and give college freshman weekly quizzes on current events.
Did he say newspapers?! Shenkman even suggests government subsidies for newspaper subscriptions, as well as federal tuition subsidies for students who perform well on civics tests. They could be paid from a special fund created by, say, a “Too Many Stupid Voters Act.”
Not only would citizens be smarter, but also newspapers might be saved. Announcements of newsroom cuts, which ultimately hurt quality, have become routine.
In his book, Shenkman, founder of George Mason University’s History News Network, is tough on everyday Americans. Why, he asks, do we value polls when clearly The People don’t know enough to make a reasoned judgment?
The Founding Fathers, Shenkman points out, weren’t so enamored of The People, whom they distrusted. Hence a Republic, not a Democracy. They understood that an ignorant electorate was susceptible to emotional manipulation and feared the tyranny of the masses.
Both Shenkman and the institute pose a bedeviling question, as crucial as any to the nation’s health: Who will govern a free nation if no one understands the mechanics and instruments of that freedom?
Answer: Maybe one day, a demagogue.
I think that these results pretty much validate the Founding Father’s suspicions of the majority, and how fit they are to rule. As the article mentioned, a Republic was what they supported over a direct democracy. I suppose it’s not surprising to me either, I’ve caught quite a few vignettes from Jaywalking, Mr. Leno’s segment on his show. However, how little people truly knew was rather shocking to me. A lack of understanding of free market compared to centralized planning is rather shocking, considering how people parroted the term “socialism” around so much in this election. I would have thought that more people would have understood that. I guess either way that you present this, there do need to be changes in the education given in this country. I like the mandated newspaper reading idea, I read the Spokesman every day and I feel I’m more informed for it. I suppose we’ll have to see what can really be applied though, I’m sure we’d see rebellion against something like that, most people don’t want to do more than just the minimal amount. They’d probably turn against it on the grounds that it’s not ‘relevant’ to their lives, like what I hear about higher levels of math. It’s a nice idea, but unlikely to be implemented.
Connection: A Direct Democracy is a governmental system where the population directly votes on or changes government policy, or what the government does. A Direct Democracy is subject to the whims of the majority of the population in a nation, which can lead to rapidly changing interests and a preponderance of the uninformed making decisions. A Republic is a Democracy where the decision makers are voted for by the general populace. These decision makers are generally more informed than the average citizen.
First of all, let me point out that in the first time of my high school career I feel as though I’m actually learning something I can use in the real world by taking the AP Government and Politics course. Don’t get me wrong, other courses are very important, but when am I honestly going to need to know how to analyze a poem or measure a triangle? “Civics courses, once a staple of junior and high school education, are no longer considered important in our quantitative, leave-no-child-behind world”. This is a problem, if kids are not learning the basic ideas and structure of government, then we shouldn’t be blamed for being ignorant by taking a test. The truth is I though politics were such a boring subject until I actually learned about it in my class. People are not going to just randomly start reading newspapers if they are not interested. You have to get kids involved at a young age and teach this generation how to run our country. I am, however, glad that this article pointed out that our youth are not the only ones who are lacking in political knowledge. Elected officials even proved to score low on this civics test.
Connection: This article relates to many different things that are represented in the civics test given. One of these includes the electoral college which most people didn’t know that they actually elect the President. This just proves exactly why we have an electoral college. It is because people are not politically educated and so we have politically knowledgeable people decide this decision for us.
It seems like we’ve heard all this information before. The only new facts are the statistical figures, as evidenced partly by the following portion of Kathleen Parker’s “In basic civics, Americans get ‘F’”:
“Think fast: In what document do the words “government of the people, by the people, for the people” appear? More than twice as many people (56 percent) knew that Paula Abdul was a judge on “American Idol” than knew that those words come from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (21 percent).” Remember the Political Knowledge Quiz we took during Unit One? A question very similar to the above one appeared on the quiz. It’s hard to predict whether people will pay more attention to politics now that we will have our first African-American president ever. It’s important to remember that basic civics is not just limited to knowing the names of famous politicians and such; another key component is the voting process. Many people in the U.S. have strong personal beliefs about abortion, the war in Iraq, education reform, etc., but never voice their opinions completely because they choose not to vote. Whether out of laziness or sheer self-pity, many people do not vote simply because they think their vote counts for nothing.
Connection: Paradox of Mass Politics – W. Russell Neuman’s “key finding” was that “the mass public is stratified along a sophistication continuum. On most issues, the great majority of citizens are inattentive and uninformed. But, as with many social phenomena of this sort, there is a natural and effective division of labor.” In basic terms, even though political information is easily accessible to the majority of Americans, most people choose simply to ignore such information, thus contributing to the overall political apathy shared by many Americans. Ever since our first chapter in this class, it became clear that when it comes to basic civics, Americans certainly do deserve an “F.”
I am in complete agreement with the fact that our society today is completely oblivious to the important facts, documents, and history of our country. We as Americans do get an “F” in civics. How in an election where so many people seemed to care about the outcome can the American public have such a terrible perspective of what they were voting for? If people, especially elected officials, do not know one of the freedoms that the First Amendment guarantees then how can we be expected to vote for what we believe in when we don’t even understand what we believe in. Our country has become illiterate because we refuse to read, we will only believe what is on television, and plain stupid because our youth does not understand the history of the country that they are growing up in. This runs right into the educational system of teachers not teaching what they are supposed to. I can say that my 8th grade teacher was supposed to teach me what the constitution was all about and how our country was founded, but instead we watched John Wayne movies and learned how to Salsa dance. Our teachers need to be informing our youth about the country because they are responsible for it in the future.
Connection: My connection is to the term idiot. Today we use this term as a lightly derogatory term that doesn’t really have any weight. But we are all idiots in the eyes of past historians. Or I should say we have all become idiots because we know nothing about our own government or the history of our country. We are all part of the ignorant masses that historians described as people that could not contribute to elections because they did not know anything about the issues involved. People these days should not be able to get mad about who is elected President if they do not even understand the President’s political stances.
The very closing line “Who will govern a free nation if no one understands the mechanics and instruments of that freedom?
Answer: Maybe one day, a demagogue,” caught me slightly off gaurd. Is this really a realistic statement, or just there to add a little dramatic flare? It is a scary idea, and I can see the validity behind the argument. The founding fathers thought that ignorant people could be easily swayed by demagogues. I was not really shocked to hear of the lack of knowledge Americans have in civics. However, the statistics did make it all more unbelievable. Nonetheless, what shocked me the most, what I did not know, was how little elected officials knew. Only 27% could identify a right garaunteed in the first amendment, that is sad. I feel like I fit in with the rest of American’s in the lack of knowledge about government. And the sad thing is I actually do watch the news. The article that blogging is a good way to stay up to date so I guess it is good we do this.
Connection: This article has a direct link to the paradox of mass politics (old vocab word) which states that the more information Americans have available to them the less they know. I would also like to make a connection to Federalist 10 because the reason Madison wanted a republic is because the average citezen in uninformed and easily swayed.
The educational systems cannot be entirely blamed for the lack of public awareness; there are plenty of sources and ways to obtain the information through the media. There are books, newspapers, journalists to call, blogs, televised news, and so on. What students and the general public need is motivation. With this motivation, the public will actually take the time to find out about the basics of their government, what kind of country they lived in, and will understand what they are truly voting for as a citizen. The suggestions that Rick Shenkman made, I believe, will provide that set motivation. By teaching students early on, and continuing their government education through college, they will understand the basics they need to know-that they will HAVE to know in order to maintain a grade. The basic ideas behind Shenkman’s ideas to read newspapers and have weekly quizzes on current events will help enhance the knowledge of the average American, achieving the goal of having a more informed public and electorate. But without any set incentives or motivations, nothing will change. People need a reason to go out of their way or to use valuable brain-power over the urge of kicking back. People are usually more concerned with their day to day lives, with friends, family, and leisure time. The only way these common interests can be compromised is if there is a slight force that pushes them into making time for the outside world.
Connection: The Paradox of Mass Politics
With the excessive coverage of the media, celebrity updates, the most recent gaffs in politics being scrutinized, the general American public still, somehow, manages to fail basic questions about our government system. The information is readily availably, the school systems generally cover the aspects of government, and yet we are still stupid. As stated earlier, I think the problem could be solved by a matter of forcing motivation. If school students and elected officials are forced into knowing the information through the motivation of a passing grade or a chance at winning that election by proving they know the system, than over the generations people will become better informed. Without some sort of motivation or incentive, I don’t think the paradox of mass politics will ever change. Information will always be available; what makes the difference is how far people will go out of their way to get it.
This article was not very surprising at all. It is a known fact that The People are ignorant to the goings on of government and politics. However, as the author said, “it’s disheartening in the wake of a populist-driven election to be reminded that the voting public is dumber than ever.” It is very sad that of the public “Forty-three percent didn’t know what the Electoral College does. And 46 percent didn’t know that the Constitution gives Congress power to declare war.” I knew the public wasn’t very smart but I didn’t know they were that dumb.
The one part of the article that did surprise me was the fact that junior and high schools don’t find civics classes to be important in their attempts to not leave any children behind. In their attempt to really emphasis math and science they are over looking another important piece of education; education of how government works and how it is working today. It can be argued that this is almost as important as learning math and science. If we want people to be wholly educated this needs to be included in that education. The question posed at the end of the article is a scary one and I’m not sure I want to know the actually answer. The theoretical answer is scary enough.
Connection: I can connect this to the paradox of mass politics. The fact that while the masses are ignorant, our government can still move forward and be productive. This article proves that the masses are naïve and uneducated about politics. It amazes me that our political system works so well when the masses are ignorant. It begs the question, What would happen if the masses weren’t ignorant?
This article proves how little the people know about politics or even the government in general. How is it possible that so many people fail this “quiz?” It is really surprising that even those with college degrees don’t do much better than those without. I would not be surprised if those who did do better all had political science degrees. The is the results of this poll or quiz proves the paradox of mass politics. America has the most means of communication with all the knowledge in the world at out fingertips and we choose to completely ignore it and replacing it with the world of narrowcasting and no one having enough time to even sit down and have a meal with their families.
Not too long ago most people knew all the basic knowledge about the government and history but now people can not recognize one of the most famous lines out of the Gettysburg address. It does not make sense that with the information at our fingertips we choose to search for who got kicked off American Idol than read that one headline on our internet browsers startup page that could affect us all such as the bailout bill that most people didn’t know about until it was passed and even then no one really knew what it entailed because they “can’t miss their favorite shows.”
Connection: This article proves the Paradox of Mass Politics. America has all the information in the world in the palm of their hand but no one chooses to utilize it unless they have to for a work or a school assignment.
I was starting to get very angry when Rick Shenkman said “require high school students to read newspapers and be quizzed on current events.” I, like my fellow Americans, don’t really care what goes on in the world around me if it’s not affecting me, my family, or my friends. (Well, most Americans would just say “If it’s not affecting me.”) It is sad that people don’t know jack poop about how our government works, but that, my friends, is exactly why the creators of our Great Nation designed the government the way they did. Why have people read about stuff that they don’t want to learn about? That just bursts my bubble! People should learn because they want to learn, not because they are forced to!!!! And for those of you who are going to say (in a dumb tone of course) “Well then why do you even go to school?” School is a free education and it is a gift, not something forced upon someone. By the way, you can get your GED if you really want to, and skip the whole learning thing.
Connection: In class we talked about the paradox of mass politics which is exactly what this article is talking about. Even though nobody knows anything (even the elected officials, which shocks me,) our government still runs very successfully. The makers of our country designed it to be this way, because farmers that couldn’t even read wouldn’t be able to make highly intelligent decisions on who our leaders should be and why. That is why we have a republic, so the extremely intelligent and informed elect our nation’s leaders to the best of their abilities, and for the best interest of our country. Also mentioned in Federalist #10… this way people can’t be deceived by factions as easily.
Haha! I wrote the connection before reading the rest of the article. Look what they said: “The Founding Fathers, Shenkman points out, weren’t so enamored of The People, whom they distrusted. Hence a Republic, not a Democracy. They understood that an ignorant electorate was susceptible to emotional manipulation and feared the tyranny of the masses.”
This article brings out some pretty scary statistics. It’s certainly not good that many people are too stupid to vote. However, hasn’t that always been the case? It used to be that information didn’t travel fast enough to make people civically smarter. Then they invented the television, and many people decided that the idiot box was more exciting than the voting booth. I don’t think it’s that much of a problem for people not to be civically literate. We’re finishing up year 238 on our nation’s calendar. So far, so good. We’re still here, and, therefore, beating the original odds that said we weren’t going to beat the British in the 18th century. Not that it wouldn’t be a good thing to ensure good civics classes in high schools; that would be fine. Trying to force colleges to give freshmen civics quizzes though? That’s just stupid. You can’t force colleges to do something like that. The other problem here is that the age of newspapers is ending. They’re barely holding on. “Saving them” by giving government subsidies to kids to force them to purchase the newspapers is way out of line. The kids will buy the papers and throw them out. Maybe recycle if they’re environmentally friendly. Kids won’t read them. We barely read for our classes now! It’ll be another mammoth, wasteful expenditure by the government. The last thing is that Shenkman says is that we’ll lose liberty if we all forget how it works. That’s never going to happen. There will always be some intellectuals out there to look down their noses at the rest of us. They won’t forget how democracy and freedom work. And they’ll never stop bragging about how much they know about, either. This isn’t a real problem. This is just someone bemoaning “kids these days.” The problem with that is every generation has said “kids these days.” I say “whatever.”
Connection: The only way to make schools and colleges do this stupid “fix civic literacy” is one of those mandates from the national government. It’s like that drinking age requirement or no highway funds for your state. They could force us to read newspapers. But then there would be an uprising, and it would be lead by primetime viewers. No doubt about it.
First of all, this article is a little bit hard to believe. Of course the American public is considerably ignorant, but I’m not sure it’s as ignorant as the author of this article makes it seem. Some of the statistics provided by the author need a little more validation for me to really believe them. For example, as stated in the article, “Only 27 percent of elected officeholders in the survey could identify a right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment. Forty-three percent didn’t know what the Electoral College does. And 46 percent didn’t know that the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war.” These are ELECTED OFFICEHOLDERS. These are the people we pick to lead our country. These are the people we trust to carry out governmental procedures and keep are country running. Forty three percent of these people do not know what the Electoral College does. That is a very unbelievable statistic, but if it is valid, we should definitely have some concern about our country’s leaders.
I disagree with Rick Shenkman’s ideas on how to make our country more knowledgable. I doubt that requiring high school students to read the newspaper is a reachable, attainable goal. Quizzing college freshman on current events every week is a waste of time. I think Americans just have to learn, naturally, how to become more knowledgable and more politically involved. You can’t force this kind of knowledge into someone’s head. People have to be willing to learn.
This should come as no surprise. Our nation is one lacking of education in politics, and yet we are one of the most educated countries in the world. The media no doubt has a play in this matter. People think the nightly news offer the whole story and report the stories without bias. This is far from the truth. The media claims to know everything, thinking they are so smart. But they’re actually the worst body in the United States. I’m disgusted by our media. Deceiving the people to think what they themselves want is almost evil. A recent poll showed that over 90% of Americans thought the media won the election for Obama through positive images of him, negative images of McCain, and overreacting to the economy crisis. What is our society coming to if the media is somewhat determining who will win elections? That’s just how dumb the majority of our nation is, and this article further proves that point. What will our nation look like 50 years from now? I can envision the media only mentioning the candidate they like. The challenger’s name or party would not even be known by the mass public. What will that result in? Easy victories for the candidate whose views more closely relate to that of the media’s. We are living in a sad day.
Connection: There is no doubt this directly correlates to the paradox of mass politics. The majority of the United States doesn’t know anything about politics – myself, in some ways, included. Our nation is becoming dumber and dumber about the most simple things while worrying about how we are going to give minorities more affirmative action. It’s time to set our priorities.
You can’t trust the people. I don’t know how many times I have heard that through the duration of this semester. No, I may not be the brightest person in AP government, but I feel as though I am becoming much more useful and well rounded by taking this course. I completely agree that a civics class is 100% legitimate for any American who has even an inkling of thirst for knowledge of this great country. I knew almost nothing before this course, and yes there is much more to learn, but I feel as though I have an advantage over those who aren’t enrolled. I believe everything I read in this article not because I’m a zombie who believes everything I hear, read, or watch, but because I know statistics, people, and outcomes. There is a lot to learn about the government and its’ functions, a civics class is quite possibly the only way anybody is going to learn what they need to know before entering the ‘real world’ as our parents and teachers like to say. It is truly sad that our own government officials know diddly squat about the government. How is a nation of people who don’t trust the government as it is, supposed to trust it after they read this article and find out how stupid the government people are? I don’t know, maybe officials will wake up one day and realize that poetry, writing essays, and doing math on a calculator aren’t the soul keys to the nations success. We need to teach people about the country they all call home.
Connection:
This article reminds me of the countless time I have heard the expression, “You can’t trust the people.” I never disagreed with that statement entirely, but I thought the people do make some good decisions whether it is selfish or not. My conclusion now is that any good decisions made lately were probably just lucky. I just can’t grasp the lack of knowledge people have, myself included. I didn’t know all the answers on the survey either. Maybe one day we will be able to trust the people, but as of right now, I’m not counting on it.
Some of these facts just seem too outrageous. “Only 21% of elected officeholders in the survey could identify a right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment.” That just seems like some sort of fake number that the editor threw in there to make his story better. Of all amendments I bet that the First Amendment is the one that most everybody knows. Even if they don’t know all of the rights, it seems ridiculous that only 21% knew one of the answers. I know that our country is getting dumber and dumber. There are fewer kids these days that are taking AP classes for the actual learning experience. Most are taking them because “they look good on a transcript”. Yes that is true but people need to be in it to win it. Surveys like this are what other countries use to show their citizens how stupid we are. Why are these surveys taken when it is just going to end up embarrassing our country in front of the whole world? I can see it now “America, Now the Stupidest Country on Earth!” It’s a label that probably won’t be going away very easily or very soon, since many people these days don’t take school seriously.
Connection: Elitism is rabid through out our country. It is through our supposed stupid elected officials that our country is run. Though evidence of the intelligence of the elite did shine through as the article did mention that the elite scored higher than the average. The elite should rule our country because they are willing to go through the schooling and actually learn something.
In response to savanna,
Because we are Americans, does that require us to be patriotic? Does the American label require us to be politically active? What does it really mean to be an American? These aren’t questions that I necessarily, or anyone, really knows that answers to. However, America’s apparent ‘political apathy’ shouldn’t reflect American culture negatively because America is the land of the free…we are free to know, or not know as much as we please.
It makes sense that elected officials score low on civics tests, because the more we learn, the more our curiosity grows, and the less we ultimately know. It seems that generally, Americans don’t seek knowledge; they seek practicality, or abilities they can use in the “real” world. However, in the “real” world, anything and everything is relevant, including analyzing poems and measuring triangles. In your world, and in my world, whatever we decide to see is relevant. In your world, and my world, it’s easy to generalize a nation, like America, and call it stupid. But the people who generated the “disturbing” statistics showcasing America’s “ignorance,” in this article, don’t know any better than you, or I, what American really is. And I’m fairly certain that a civics course cannot teach us either.