The National Civic Literacy Board of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute recently gave 2,508 Americans a 33-question civics test. You know, the kind of stuff you learned in high school: The three branches of U.S. government, how a bill becomes a law, how many justices are on the U.S. Supreme Court.
(Nine. There are nine.)
Well, it’s the stuff you were SUPPOSED to learn in high school … apparently some people slept through that class, because the average score was 49 percent.
To quote the Internet: FAIL.
“Our Fading Heritage: Americans Fail a Basic Test on their History and Institutions,” found Americans couldn’t name the three branches of U.S. government, what the Electoral College does and who in the United States has the power to declare war. Worse yet, the ISI asked the questions on Election Day 2008. Watch and cringe.
So now we have some Americans believing that the three branches of the U.S. government are “The People, The Man and The Military.” And people who believe the Electoral College is “a college that you go to if you want to be elected President of the United States.” (It’s not the WORST answer, but it is WRONG.
The co-chairman of the study, Richard Brake, called the answers “shocking.”
“When we look closely at what Americans don’t know about crucial institutions like the branches of government and our monetary system, it is quite concerning, especially as our leaders address a financial crisis.
Now, I’ve run into similar situations (A college student in a class taught by my mother once told her that Wisconsin is “on the west coast, you know, by the Pacific Ocean.” Another wrote that Zeus, the king of the Gods in Greek mythology, was “a male Greek goddess”), but American adults exercising their right to vote really ought to at least try to be informed.
Or not sleep through civics class. It’s not too much to ask.