OUR CIVIC IGNORANCE: A STUNNING FAILURE TO EDUCATE: It found a stunning ignorance:

ncpa.org ^ | January 18, 2007

[LexBaird]

They also use the technique of asking loaded, biased questions, such as your entire "test" consists of.

[PeaRidge]

The questions ask for an answer from a list. They all have only one correct answer. None are biased, and each answer has specific documentation.

However, the content is meant to elicit curiosity, not hostility.

[RKV]

I don't agree that the questions are loaded or biased. They concern facts, not opinions. You DO need to be able to remember some inconvenient facts to pass the test. I'll give you one hint - the "Triangle Trade." Once you know what that is, a number of the questions answer themselves. Personally, I got all 12 correct, but then I went to college when "self-esteem" wasn't on the curriculum. You actually had to know the material to pass.

[brityank]

Never lose your ignorance -- you can never regain it!

[wildbill]

I have been a graduate student off and on for a decade, earning multiple graduate degrees in Literature, Humanities and History. Further, I began teaching college courses in 2000.

I can personally attest that there are way too many uneducated students in our schools of higher learning. One graduate student, a high school teacher, in a class on WWII actually asked the professor: "You keep talking about WWII. Wouldn't that mean there was a WWI?"

I could continue with numerous ridiculous anectdotes, but why bother. Everyone knows the problem; no one moves to correct it.

[kalee]

I recently served on a panel where we judged a writing contest. The the essay questions were What does it mean to be an American? and What is Freeedom?
I was stunned to read the papers that were submitted. Everyone of the students needed remedial writing classes with an emphasis on logic. The "winner" really was the best of those submitted but I would have never given her paper anything above a C if I had been grading it. She had nothing to say besides restating the premise over and over in different terms. Where did logic classes go?
BTW...all these students are seniors headed to college next year in NC.

[LexBaird]

None are biased, and each answer has specific documentation.

Okay, are these question biased, or merely meant to elicit curiosity?:

1. Confederate General, Nathan Bedford Forrest made his pre war living as:
A: a cavalryman. B: a slave trader. C: a Baptist minister.

2. Following the war, Forrest became:
A. a founding member of the Ku Klux Klan. B. a horse rancher. C. a Baptist minister.

3. The flag of the Confederacy flew over slave owner's plantations:
A. In the Caribbean B. Throughout the South C. Nowhere

4. Before April of 1861, many years before Confederate artillery began to fire on Fort Sumter, the Government of South Carolina:
A. built it. B. fought to keep it from being built. C. ceded the site in perpetuity to the Federal Government.

5. Shortly after the time that Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclaimation, he made part of his re-election platform an Amendment to the United States Constitution that:
A. Would make slavery illegal in those parts of the United States under rebellion. B. Would make slavery legal in all the states C. Would free all slaves.

6. The Confederate Constitution guaranteed:
A. the suffrage of women. B. the right to own Negroes. C. the power of States to secede.

7. In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in:
A. the entire South. B. all the states. C. Those places under Lincoln's jurisdiction as Commander in Chief during insurrection.

8. Prior to the war, the state whose population included more slaves than any other state was:
A. Virginia. B. Maryland. C. Rhode Island.

9. In 1861 this was said, “Our new government is founded on the opposite idea of the equality of the races. Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the Negro is not equal to the White man; that slavery --- subordination to the superior race --- is his natural condition.” Who said it?
A. Jefferson Davis B. Alexander Stephens C. Abraham Lincoln

[kalee]

ping

[PeaRidge]

All fair questions and answers except 1 and 3.

[AmericanVictory]

Makes you want to vote against school bonds.

[LexBaird]

They are all factual and have one answer, including 1 and 3. But, they are as biased as your test, because of the unspoken theme behind the questions. That is the nature of push poll questionnaires as well. They are not meant to elicit answers, per se. The pollster could not care less what the response is, because that is predetermined by the questions. They are meant to leave the respondent with an overall impression in the direction the pollster wishes.

[PeaRidge]

It is clear that you are trying to frame the "test" as biased, which it is not. You went to the trouble to devise your own "test" to prove bias and push-pull tactics.

You asked me my opinion, and I gave you an answer you do not accept. It seems as if you have an emotional reality that is not going to allow you to be reasonable or engaging.

But, nevertheless, you misunderstand the reason for my original post, and I know that you are not interested except to try to make a "strawman" out of my post.

It is at this point that I will now block you from my sources. Good day.

[okie01]

As an adjunct professor, I taught an upper division professional course at one of the major state universities here in Texas.

It was a required class for an Advertising or Marketing major. It was on Monday night, opposite Monday Night Football. The kids were undeniably bright...and committed.

However, I was stunned to find that long division was a complete mystery to virtually all of them. Given a cost per page and the total audience of that page (in thousands), only six out of 36 were able to arrive at a cost per thousand.

With calculators!

I had no idea! I was there to teach Media & Marketing...and I ended up teaching 6th grade math.

Apparently, nobody had ever asked them to learn long division in the past. Is it just assumed by the teaching profession that, because kids have calculators, they don't need to learn any mathematical processes?

[chessplayer]

The United States no longer has an education system. Our schools have been turned into nothing more than left-wing political indoctrination centers.

[LexBaird]

If you can't see the bias or are unwilling to acknowledge it, I can't help you. But if you are sincere about merely wanting to raise historical curiosity and not promote a particular POV, try this idea: next time you post your test, intersperse your questions with mine. That way you can exasperate both sides at once.

I gave you an answer you do not accept. It seems as if you have an emotional reality that is not going to allow you to be reasonable or engaging. ... It is at this point that I will now block you from my sources. Good day.

LOL! Talk about projecting. Try sticking your fingers in your ears and chanting "Nanananah! I can't hear you!"

[InvisibleChurch]

up

[AD from SpringBay]

Is it just assumed by the teaching profession...

I don't know what's assumed, but the students aren't learning in public schools. It's a can of worms I know - no simple solutions or one source to blame. But I don't see how some of them graduate high school knowing so very little. That's the failure, allowing students to continue upwards in grade even though they aren't passing. And again, it's not just Civics, or English, or Math. It's an across the broad hole in their knowledge.

[MARTIAL MONK]

Burp

[FreedomPoster]

Thank you!

That's a pet peeve of mine, as well.

[linda_22003]

Not today; as I said, Bill Watterson discontinued the strip several years ago.