Today's kids have no chance at this test. Same thing for anyone in college - no chance. Victims of our Unionized teaching force. Actually most immigrants trying to become citizens have a much better chance.
Enjoy:
www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx?batch=16
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9 comments:
Unless they were home schooled, charter schooled or went to a parochial/private school. At the college level - Hillsdale.
Those home schooled kids know all about the Scopes Monkey Trial, don't they?
Oh, and I'm sure that Hillsdale is much better than Harvard, Yale, Michigan, UC/Berkeley...
You are obsessed with Darwin and the Scopes monkey trial, it's comical. Actually, many are home schooled because of the poor education and lack of teaching in the public school system. They and parochial schools score far better. You are right - Harvard, Yale, Michigan and UC Berkeley are great schools. But it is funny to watch the late night shows lampoon on a random basis their students and their lack of history and civics knowledge. Isn't the Teachers Union great!
It has NOTHING to do with the unions. European kids are far better educated and their teachers are all unionized.
The other day I got a sign call on a house I have for sale. I told the prospective buyer that the house has a pool shaped like Minnesota. She asked, "What is a Minnesota shape?" I replied - it is shaped like the State of Minnesota. The homeowners had the pool put in and they are from Minnesota. She then said, "You know, I'm not from Minnesota. How am I supposed to know what shape it is?"
Sadly - a kid from France or Germany would not have needed further explanation, while it stumped an American looking to buy a home in Arcadia.
NOTHING TO DO WITH IT - right!, foolish.
Lots of reasons for declining educational quality and, as I said, the unions have nothing to do with it. Please show the connection.
Home schooling, charter and private schools all have one thing in common - the parents care more and are more involved with their kid's education.
The quality of schools is largely determined by the quality of the families of the kids that attend. The more parents are involved and participate, the better the schools are.
In our lifetimes, there has been a material decrease in the amount of TIME parents have for their school age kids. Single parent households, both parents working, etc.
This paragraph is purely conjecture - I think we are a more selfish nation - our parents generation would hold three jobs if necessary to send their kid to a good college. Today there are kids from relatively affluent families that can only go where their student loans or scholarships take them. I have friends that have neighbors whose kid was accepted to a pricey out-of-state school, but couldn't attend due to cost. Yet seemed to have enough to buy a new Lexus SUV.
If the kids education is a low or mid-level priority in the household, they will not do as well when Jay Leno asks them a very simple question on the street...
I would agree there are lots of reasons for declining educational quality. However, Unions have a great deal to do with the situation. Union workers are not nearly as competent as those workers who are in a competitive atmosphere. Time after time we see the pure laziness of Union workers. They have an entire 6 story building in NYC to house problem teachers who do nothing all day long, because it is so tough to fire their lazy ass. In Central Falls RI recently a superintendent fired all 100 teachers because they wouldn't subject themselves to 6 minor changes in the school's curriculum. The school scored the lowest of the low, while the average teacher income was $75k/year vs the average citizen at 22k/yr. She in my estimation was a mini-Reagan (PATCO). They said they wanted to negotiate more pay for the changes. Get real, in this economy and these times they want more money!
article:
http://www.projo.com/education/content/central_falls_teachers.1_02-13-10_A8HEI7Q_v61.3a65218.html
Actually many parents care a great deal about their kids education. Look at show after show that shows kids trying to get into great charter schools and parochial sChools that only have so much room. See - Harlam and the best one of all DC. It is heart breaking to watch the parents and their children get turned away. They want out of the situation they are in, but are trapped. If they were allowed to apply the ridiculous amount per student we are taxed to attend a school of their choice it would be much more competitive. For the insane amount of per student expenditures in places like DC and Pittsburgh to name a few, these kids could be going to quality schools.
I have no idea nor care about your friends college problems. College is elective and it's up to the parents and/or the kids to make that work. You can get a fine state education if need be. I'm talking about the public school system which is in shambles, largely because of government intervention and Unions.
Plus you miss the point about Leno, Letterman and many other shows that question these students - these kids were attending the likes of NYU, Yale, Harvard, USC and UCLA - and could not answer some of the most basic history and civics questions. Stuff I learned in the 8th grade!
I agree with much of what you said, Mark. It is safe to say that GOVERNMENT workers are less efficient that private sector workers. I just don't know that you will find a difference in learning in a public school with a union workforce or without.
You sell some of the best built cars in the world and they are built in one of the most unionized countries in the world, built by unionized workers...
I may have missed your point about the students, but I challenge it some. A kid at UC/Berkeley will be able to test well on your civics test. A kid at a typical state school may do well on the quiz, and maybe not.
K-12 is a priority, but college education is a state concern as well. It is on topic and I was giving an current example that would have been less likely to have happened in an earlier time.
I don't know how old you are - I am 48 - and I have heard all my life - starting in elementary school -how bad schools have become. My grandmother worked in the Chicago juvenile justice system in the 40's and 50's and said the schools were merely warehouses. Our problems in education are not new.
Your point about the poor kids getting turned away in major cities that already spend a fortune per pupil is a good one. I support the concept of charter schools and competition, but they need to be supervised. I had a school teacher client 15+/- years ago that was a big fan of the charter concept, until she worked at one and became a bitter opponent. She said there were many resources in the public schools which are taken for granted. You don't realize how much support you have in a public school until you go to a Charter school and simply do without.
I like to fully understand the topics that we discuss and I must confess this topic is one where I simply haven't done the reading necessary to be on top of it. It is a complex subject with many problems. I have long thought we should simply increase the school year 25% to 225 days +/- and see a 25% +/- improvement, albeit from a mediocre base.
In the real world, we'd all kill for a 225 day work year. It would help working parents, and allow more time to cover existing curricula as well as extending the subjects covered.
What does Eric say? His wife is an educator...
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