Americans Ignorance about America

noise said:
It’s no great secret that Americans overall know very little about the history — and even current state — of their own country, as poll after test after survey after embarrassing statement have proved for decades.

The just-released 2017 civics survey conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania found, among other things:

*More than a third of American adults (37 percent) can’t name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment.
*Only a quarter of American adults (26 percent) can name all three branches of government.
*More than half of American adults (53 percent) incorrectly think it is accurate to say that immigrants who are here illegally do not have any rights under the U.S. Constitution.

Last year’s survey by the Annenberg center found:

*Nearly 4 in 10 (39 percent) incorrectly said the Constitution gives the president the power to declare war. Just more than half (54 percent) knew the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war.
*A vast majority (83 percent) correctly said the Constitution gives Congress the power to raise taxes.
*A majority (77 percent) know the Constitution says that Congress cannot establish an official religion — though almost 1 in 10 agreed with the statement that the Constitution says, “Congress can outlaw atheism because the United States is one country under God.”

A 2015 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, using nationally representative Education Department data, found that about 75 percent of eighth-graders across the country did not have a solid grasp of geography, and the report concluded that a majority of states do not require geography courses in middle school or high school.

Only 18 percent of eighth-graders scored proficient in U.S. history, 27 percent were at or above proficient in geography and 23 percent performed at or above proficient in civics — though it is important to note that NAEP proficiency levels are considered higher than grade-level proficiencies.

Now, we have a new example of American historical and civic illiteracy. This one involves Puerto Rico, the island recently devastated by two hurricanes.

Puerto Rico is not a foreign country, at least it isn’t if you live in the United States. It is a U.S. territory, and those on the island who were born in Puerto Rico are American citizens (though, like denizens of the District of Columbia, have no voting rights in Congress).

But a new poll by an outfit called Morning Consult, as reported in the New York Times, found that only 54 percent of Americans know that people born in Puerto Rico are American citizens. The story said:

This finding varied significantly by age and education. Only 37 percent of people ages 18 to 29 know people born in Puerto Rico are citizens, compared with 64 percent of those 65 or older. Similarly, 47 percent of Americans without a college degree know Puerto Ricans are Americans, compared with 72 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree and 66 percent of those with a postgraduate education.

A May 2016 Economist/YouGov poll had even worse results: Only 43 percent of those who replied knew that Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens.

The Puerto Rico Report reported that last year, Stephen Moore, a senior economic contributor at FreedomWorks and a distinguished visiting fellow with the Project for Economic Growth at the right-wing Heritage Foundation, said this while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee:

And such attitudes provide yet more evidence, as if any were needed, that Americans’ lack of understanding of their own country can have important consequences for people beyond simply being thought of as dumb.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...out-their-own-country/?utm_term=.69fcceffc2d9
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*More than a third of American adults (37 percent) can’t name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment.

Yet will whine and cry that their first amendment rights have been violated.


*Only a quarter of American adults (26 percent) can name all three branches of government.

Then complain about what the government does


*More than half of American adults (53 percent) incorrectly think it is accurate to say that immigrants who are here illegally do not have any rights under the U.S. Constitution.

The bad part about this issue is that many believe someone here ILLEGALLY should have those rights.

*Nearly 4 in 10 (39 percent) incorrectly said the Constitution gives the president the power to declare war. Just more than half (54 percent) knew the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war.

Wonder why with all the leftwing media blaming Bush for putting us into Iraq and Afghanistan


*A vast majority (83 percent) correctly said the Constitution gives Congress the power to raise taxes.

While only half of the country actually pays income taxes.


*A majority (77 percent) know the Constitution says that Congress cannot establish an official religion — though almost 1 in 10 agreed with the statement that the Constitution says, “Congress can outlaw atheism because the United States is one country under God.”

Since atheism isn't a religion, couldn't it be outlawed and not violate the Constitution.
 
Rune said:
Do you believe Trump said it is a big ocean?
Who knew?
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You still make excuses for "57 States", "Here in Asia" while Obama was in Hawaii, and while talking about the widening of the Panama Canal "if we don't deepen our ports all along the gulf coast places like Charleston SC or Savannah GA or Jacksonville FL . . . "
 
Bill said:
In Calif we had to pass a civics exam to get out of 8th grade... I neither cared or studied much beyond what was necessary to pass...

I think most were not much different than now..........

Nor was the "knowledge" of events..........

Example East Timor & the genocide this country was supporting..... ALmost no one knew anything about it, including many/most in our military........

We new about Viet Nam, but little of what was going on in the rest of the planet, even the dirty shit in Central America/south AMerica...

Did you learn about what we did to Iran in school?? I never did............
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In other words, you admit only to wanting to do the minimum? That explains a lot. The results were equivalent to what you wanted.
 
noise said:
yes it's too much to ask.
It's a picayune complaint from your nitpicking brain, whereby i pay it no mind
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You do have to recognize the irony, given your thread about failing education?

To the OP....if you think back to school years, we were inundated with homework and test prep. History/Social Studies tends to be boring to kids...although I'm fascinated by a lot of it now. But for students, history is comprised of meaningless dates to be remembered, when you're trying to decipher the latest math problems before the next test.

English/Grammar follows the same suit, although I still remember quite a bit from the old days of sentence structure, etc.

Immigrants have a far better grasp of geography than we do, but again....we grew up focusing on the important subjects, leaving SS on the back burner. Given that our govt never learns from history, it might be a good idea to do away with it altogether?
 
Althea said:
Or that islands are surrounded by water. A lot of water.
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Or "57 States", "Here in Asia" while Obama was in Hawaii, and while talking about the widening of the Panama Canal "if we don't deepen our ports all along the gulf coast places like Charleston SC or Savannah GA or Jacksonville FL . . . "
 
noise said:
oh great Buddha give me patience....
there are conflicting reports from that mayor woman of San Juan and the feds.
Also I haven't seen any updates regarding the rainfall today.

Since this is POLITICIZED like anything else, i'd like to find some actual facts on the road clearance, flooding etc
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Yes...it is politicized. But when you have a POTUS who assembles meetings for the sole purpose of creating a round robin of accolades, it's safe to say the you should trust the Mayor over trump. Her only agenda is saving lives in her waterlogged country. trump's only agenda is to change the narrative to one about how great a POTUS he is.

Whenever trump says 'believe me'....don't.

Whenever he says 'fake news', you can take the news story he's refuting to the bank.
 
Althea said:
You do have to recognize the irony, given your thread about failing education?

To the OP....if you think back to school years, we were inundated with homework and test prep. History/Social Studies tends to be boring to kids...although I'm fascinated by a lot of it now. But for students, history is comprised of meaningless dates to be remembered, when you're trying to decipher the latest math problems before the next test.

English/Grammar follows the same suit, although I still remember quite a bit from the old days of sentence structure, etc.

Immigrants have a far better grasp of geography than we do, but again....we grew up focusing on the important subjects, leaving SS on the back burner. Given that our govt never learns from history, it might be a good idea to do away with it altogether?
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If dates were the only things being done, history wasn't being taught.

Get away with history? Is that why you lefties want all the statues, flags, etc. of a certain period of time gone. Out of sight, out of mind?

Study at home and decipher the math problems there.
 
Cypress said:
From what I can tell, this poll is not measuring knowledge. It is measuring awareness of bureaucracy and parliamentary process.

I have never met anyone who does not know this nation has freedom of speech. That's the important thing. Specifically being able to link it to the First Amendment is just knowledge of process, it is not measuring innate knowledge. I also don't think I've ever met anyone who does not know there is a Congress, and Supreme Court, and a President. But that "three branches" lexicon is something ascribed great significance in high school classes, but it really isn't measuring knowledge when you think about it. It is measuring familiarity with buzz words.

Watching Fox News or reading Brietbart is not going to increase American's knowledge. Those are propaganda outlets that are not interesting in disseminating information and knowledge. You know what smart people - really smart people - listen to and read? That's right, NPR, PBS, National Geographic, Smithsonian, BBC, et al. You know, so called liberal bastions of learning and scholarly knowledge.

As for your alleged concern with the knowledge base of Americans, I have to profess I find your concern trolling a little less than genuine. Why? Because you worship at the shrine of Donald J. Drumpf. Undoubtedly and demonstrably the stupidest and least informed President we have ever had. They guy might know how to sell steaks and hotels, but he is literally an incurious dunce in every sense of the word. That is who you worship, that who you spend a great deal of your life defending with every fiber of your being on obscure message boards .

I think that really reflects poorly on you, and does not suggest to me that you give a rats ass about respecting knowledge and education.
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Excellent analogy.
 
Althea said:
Yes...it is politicized. But when you have a POTUS who assembles meetings for the sole purpose of creating a round robin of accolades, it's safe to say the you should trust the Mayor over trump. Her only agenda is saving lives in her waterlogged country. trump's only agenda is to change the narrative to one about how great a POTUS he is.

Whenever trump says 'believe me'....don't.

Whenever he says 'fake news', you can take the news story he's refuting to the bank.
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Sounds to me like her only agenda is to blast Trump. If saving lives was her agenda, she wouldn't have time to run her dick sucker and would be working on "saving lives".
 
Bill said:
In Calif we had to pass a civics exam to get out of 8th grade... I neither cared or studied much beyond what was necessary to pass...

I think most were not much different than now..........

Nor was the "knowledge" of events..........

Example East Timor & the genocide this country was supporting..... ALmost no one knew anything about it, including many/most in our military........

We new about Viet Nam, but little of what was going on in the rest of the planet, even the dirty shit in Central America/south AMerica...

Did you learn about what we did to Iran in school?? I never did............
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Yes...'history' is not truly history. It's what the multi billion dollar scam of a textbook industry feeds us.

If trump were able, he'd erase Obama from history books.
 
Althea said:
Yes...'history' is not truly history. It's what the multi billion dollar scam of a textbook industry feeds us.

If trump were able, he'd erase Obama from history books.
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Since the only accomplishment Obama can claim is being the first half black elected to the office, there wouldn't much to erase. I'm not sure I'd call something that could only happen because his typical runaway baby daddy got together with white trash and produced a child an accomplishment. If it's all you have, it's all you have.
 
noise said:
oh great Buddha give me patience....
there are conflicting reports from that mayor woman of San Juan and the feds.
Also I haven't seen any updates regarding the rainfall today.

Since this is POLITICIZED like anything else, i'd like to find some actual facts on the road clearance, flooding etc
Click to expand...
Rana just accepts any newz (sic) if it comes from Raw Story, Think Progress, Daily Kos et al.
 
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