Citizen Stupid
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Polls over the past three decades measuring Americans' knowledge of history show similarly dismal results. What happened in 1066? Just 10% know it is the date of the Norman Conquest. Who said the "world must be made safe for democracy"? Just 14% know it was Woodrow Wilson. Which country dropped the nuclear bomb? Only 49% know it was their own country. Who was America's greatest president? According to a Gallup poll in 2005, a majority answer that it was a president from the last half century: 20% said Reagan, 15% Bill Clinton, 12% John Kennedy, 5% George W. Bush. Only 14% picked Lincoln and only 5%, Washington.
And the worst president? For years Americans would include in the list Herbert Hoover. But no more. Most today do not know who Herbert Hoover was, according to the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey in 2004. Just 43% could correctly identify him.
The only history questions a majority of Americans can answer correctly are the most basic ones. What happened at Pearl Harbor? A great majority know: 84%. What was the Holocaust? Nearly 70% know. (Thirty percent don't?) But it comes as something of a shock that, in 1983, just 81% knew who Lee Harvey Oswald was and that, in 1985, only 81% could identify Martin Luther King, Jr.
What Voters Don't Know
Who these poor souls were who didn't know who Martin Luther King was we cannot be sure. Research suggests that they were probably impoverished (the poor tend to know less on the whole about politics and history than others) or simply unschooled, categories which usually overlap. But even Americans in the middle class who attend college exhibit profound ignorance. A report in 2007 published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute found that on average 14,000 randomly selected college students at 50 schools around the country scored under 55 (out of 100) on a test that measured their knowledge of basic American civics. Less than half knew that Yorktown was the last battle of the American Revolution. Surprisingly, seniors often tested lower than freshmen. (The explanation was apparently that many students by their senior year had forgotten what they learned in high school.)
The optimists point to surveys indicating that about half the country can describe some differences between the Republican and Democratic Parties. But if they do not know the difference between liberals and conservatives, as surveys indicate, how can they possibly say in any meaningful way how the parties differ? And if they do not know this, what else do they not know?
Plenty, it turns out. Even though they are awash in news, Americans generally do not seem to absorb what it is that they are reading and hearing and watching. Americans cannot even name the leaders of their own government. Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court. Fewer than half of Americans could tell you her name during the length of her entire tenure. William Rehnquist was chief justice of the Supreme Court. Just 40% of Americans ever knew his name (and only 30% could tell you that he was a conservative). Going into the First Gulf War, just 15% could identify Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense. In 2007, in the fifth year of the Iraq War, only 21% could name the secretary of defense, Robert Gates. Most Americans cannot name their own member of Congress or their senators.
If the problem were simply that Americans are bad at names, one would not have to worry too much. But they do not understand the mechanics of government either. Only 34% know that it is the Congress that declares war (which may explain why they are not alarmed when presidents take us into wars without explicit declarations of war from the legislature). Only 35% know that Congress can override a presidential veto. Some 49% think the president can suspend the Constitution. Some 60% believe that he can appoint judges to the federal courts without the approval of the Senate. Some 45% believe that revolutionary speech is punishable under the Constitution.
On the basis of their comprehensive approach, Delli Carpini and Keeter concluded that only 5% of Americans could correctly answer three-fourths of the questions asked about economics, only 11% of the questions about domestic issues, 14% of the questions about foreign affairs, and 10% of the questions about geography. The highest score? More Americans knew the correct answers to history questions than any other (which will come as a surprise to many history teachers). Still, only 25% knew the correct answers to three-quarters of the history questions, which were rudimentary.
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.
Young and Ignorant—and Voting
At least, you may think to yourself, we are not getting any dumber. But by some measures we are. Young people by many measures know less today than young people forty years ago. And their news habits are worse. Newspaper reading went out in the sixties along with the Hula Hoop. Just 20% of young Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 read a daily paper. And that isn't saying much. There's no way of knowing what part of the paper they're reading. It is likelier to encompass the comics and a quick glance at the front page than dense stories about Somalia or the budget.
They aren't watching the cable news shows either. The average age of CNN's audience is sixty. And they surely are not watching the network news shows, which attract mainly the Depends generation. Nor are they using the Internet in large numbers to surf for news. Only 11% say that they regularly click on news web pages. (Yes, many young people watch Jon Stewart's The Daily Show. A survey in 2007 by the Pew Research Center found that 54% of the viewers of The Daily Show score in the "high knowledge" news category—about the same as the viewers of the O'Reilly Factor on Fox News.)
Compared with Americans generally—and this isn't saying much, given their low level of interest in the news—young people are the least informed of any age cohort save possibly for those confined to nursing homes. In fact, the young are so indifferent to newspapers that they single-handedly are responsible for the dismally low newspaper readership rates that are bandied about.
In earlier generations—in the 1950s, for example—young people read newspapers and digested the news at rates similar to those of the general population. Nothing indicates that the current generation of young people will suddenly begin following the news when they turn 35 or 40. Indeed, half a century of studies suggest that most people who do not pick up the news habit in their twenties probably never will.
Young people today find the news irrelevant. Bored by politics, students shun the rituals of civic life, voting in lower numbers than other Americans (though a small up-tick in civic participation showed up in recent surveys). U.S. Census data indicate that voters aged 18 to 24 turn out in low numbers. In 1972, when 18 year olds got the vote, 52% cast a ballot. In subsequent years, far fewer voted: in 1988, 40%; in 1992, 50%; in 1996, 35%; in 2000, 36%. In 2004, despite the most intense get-out-the-vote effort ever focused on young people, just 47% took the time to cast a ballot.
Since young people on the whole scarcely follow politics, one may want to consider whether we even want them to vote. Asked in 2000 to identify the presidential candidate who was the chief sponsor of Campaign Finance Reform—Sen. John McCain—just 4% of people between the ages of 18 and 24 could do so. As the primary season began in February, fewer than half in the same age group knew that George W. Bush was even a candidate. Only 12% knew that McCain was also a candidate even though he was said to be especially appealing to young people.
One news subject in recent history, 9/11, did attract the interest of the young. A poll by Pew at the end of 2001 found that 61% of adult Americans under age 30 said that they were following the story closely. But few found any other subjects in the news that year compelling. Anthrax attacks? Just 32% indicated it was important enough to follow. The economy? Again, just 32%. The capture of Kabul? Just 20%.
It would appear that young people today are doing very little reading of any kind. In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts, consulting a vast array of surveys, including the United States Census, found that just 43% of young people ages 18 to 24 read literature. In 1982, the number was 60%. A majority do not read either newspapers, fiction, poetry, or drama. Save for the possibility that they are reading the Bible or works of non-fiction, for which solid statistics are unavailable, it would appear that this generation is less well read than any other since statistics began to be kept.
But does the current generation lack basic knowledge? Certainly. As an instructor for college English courses, however, I must say that I sometimes worry that the cause may not be lack of interest so much as cynicism towards and a deep suspicion of the political process, and a corresponding indifference towards its exact workings. In addition, many college students today have jobs while attending school, and stay in school longer, making it hard to pay attention to the news. And the poor, whose parents were usually poor, face low job prospects, even if they don't drift away from high school before graduation, or prison, given the "war on drugs." Yet, I must admit that a large problem is probably just bread and circuses: why worry about what they can't control when they can stay up all night playing video games?
When my son attended Washington State University, part of his work study program had to do with conducting workshops for entering students who were incapable of passing a basic test of composition. When I was visiting the campus, I sat in on one of his groups. These undergraduates could barely craft a coherent sentence, yet they saw nothing wrong with their lack of what should be a basic skill.
The fascinating part of the experience lay in the fact that every single one of these students had completed Advanced Placement courses in English .... with high grades.
Parents want high grades and low workloads for their children. Over 75% of the parents with whom I have spoken over the past ten years hold some level of belief that there is little of any value in the academic curriculum. The entire point of high grades is to facilitate moving on to the next level of education.
When people are paid to stand up in a seminar and propose that anything worth saying must be said within 30 seconds, we are not likely to get better.
And none of it is new. In the 1950's, a Presidential candidate was doomed when his opponent characterized him as an "egghead". Students of the time were told: "Good citizens do not want to be treated like privileged characters."
In programs for the 12 - 20 demographic, the cool kids have problems with classwork. The ones who do the work and get the grades are the figures of fun.
We can have a nation that values intelligence and academic accomplishment, or we can continue with what we have.
dumber than dumb
how do you think we got into this war
ignorance
instead americans want to blame the politicans
mirror time in america
during the vietnam war over 80% of americans did not know who the viet cong were
even mc cain has no idea who we are fighting in iraq
nations usually deserve their leaders
We are the dummies who have been taken to the river by our politicians at every election cycle, yet prevented from drinking any water.
How many times have we heard those shrewd politicians telling us: The American People want this or want that? They pretend to take cues from us, but ultimately vote for the interest of their handlers in Corporate America, because they know that we couldn’t tell the difference. This political deception will go on so long as the average American lives in this sad state of ignorance.
One statistic in the article stood out: 81% of surveyed knew about Pearl Harbor and nearly 70% knew about the Holocaust, yet only 1 in 4 knew about the five basic freedoms guaranteed by the constitution. This illustrates how good trained animals we have come to be. They can systemically ingrain in us selective knowledge which fits the propaganda of one special interest group or another, while withholding what make us better citizens in more vibrant democracy. Knowledge of the Holocaust is very useful in drawing our sympathy for Israel, thus billions of our tax money can be given to a racist, religious extremist state that is committing its own holocaust against the Palestinians. Feeding us selectively about Pearl Harbor will serve well the Military Industrial Complex who wants us to believe that we live in very hostile world that is ready to jump and destroy us. They don’t tell us, for example, that our defense spending is larger than the next 20 countries after us combined. Few Americans know how many democratically elected leaders we have overthrown and how many dictators we have installed around the globe who had murdered thousands of their own citizens at the order of our CIA. We, often, have been the victimizers not the victims.
Yes, the best experts at exploiting our ignorance are those whom we elected to represent us. George Bush and his Neocons were masters at exploiting our ignorance by taking us to war based on deception that we could not detect at the time. They gutted our Habeas Corpus right and civil liberties, with the help of Congress, by passing the Patriot Act. The sad fact about all of this is that they have treated us no better than trained animals in the process. Do you recall the color scheme they used to scare us with into submission: Yellow, Orange and Red colors flashing in our faces at airports, federal and state buildings? This scare tactics worked, we have elected a puppet master to a second term and now we are paying the price of our great ignorance.
Britney and Paris are more important than national and global issues?
What about only serving fast food at schools instead of healthy meals?
Instant gratification vs. working hard for what you want?
What about a young generation that has no manners and no respect for others?
Give a kid a "timeout" instead of a spanking? WTF!?!?!
Turn of the video games and tell them to get outside.
Turn off the TV and tell them to get a hooby.
Don't we as a society promote stupity, ignorance and laziness in our every day actions?
How about YOU be the change you want in the world. It starts with you and how you teach others by your actions.
I'm a liberal, but a liberal who doesn't choose to demonize the rest of the electorate as a bunch of ignorant bastards. As a former teacher, I've worked with the broken education system. You want to reform America? Reform the horrid education system, which teaches everyone they can be President, and where the students learn nothing.
The greatest blunders we liberals took part in is the destruction of the American education system. And it's our socially-aware, politically correct fault.
Wake up. Our education system is apartheid on a massive scale.
Michael
http://shambollocks.blogspot.com/
My guess is that former Senator Boren in his book, "A letter to America" has it right.