Friday, November 21, 2008

Are we really that woefully ignorant?

For the third straight year, the Inter-collegiate Studies Institute has found that a large number of Americans (they surveyed 2,508 from a variety of backgrounds) cannot pass a basic 33 question test on civil literacy that include questions on their country's history and institutions. The average score on the test was 49%. An F.
The test is available online, here. It took about five minutes and I scored a 73%. I will admit, I found some of the questions a little tough. Must be watching too much television, the number one reason American's are dumber these days.

6 comments:

Jen said...

87.87%

okbushmans said...

Hate to brag: 93.94% (#8 and #33 taxes are not my strong point!) Actually I don't hate to brag. Rubbin' it in royally!

L said...

History major's don't count and people that read books, titled "Young Patriots." Now if it was "Young Patriots Do Washington" then that's another story...

Mandy said...

87.88% but with some good guessing involved. Those last questions stumped me. Shows me I know more about history and not about taxes and the economic side of govt.

Peter said...

I missed one. Damn.

(My claim to fame...I lost on Jeopardy. Yep. The gospel truth, by $100.)

And I was a history major/history teacher, so I guess I'm disqualified...?

L said...

Hey, I know somebody whose been on tv!! Seriously, good for you. That show is hard, and now I have a bigger complex than I had before :)

You're swimming with the ladies here, but there's a pretty girl in your picture so you pass that XY test. You're almost too late, I'm thinking of lighting a torch to this blog and starting anew. Refereeing a lopsided game alone gets old after awhile. Maybe I'll do self help, or cooking or something.
(If you knew me you'd be peeing your pants with laughter right now, as I am good at neither.)
Thanks for your comment.