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After more than 24 years in the U.S. Supreme Court, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor now strives to make civics and government more interesting for young children than it was for her growing up in El Paso, Texas. “I was so sick of learning about Stephen F. Austin,” she said Saturday inside a University of Chicago lecture hall, referring to the man after whom the Texas capital city is named. “All they teach in Texas is Texas!” > O’Connor argued that young people need to be better informed about the workings of their own government. To that end, she said,...

Pass the test and you get to vote. Hell, I'd argue to award extra votes for anyone scoring 8 out of 10 or better!

Americans are busy people. In one respect we are no different than any other people on the planet… our primary needs are food, water and shelter. Beyond that however, Americans enjoy a life of leisure that virtually no one else on the planet enjoys. Not leisure measured in hours worked as the French, Germans and workers in virtually every other developed country work fewer hours per year than Americans do. No, what’s different is that leisure time in the United States has so many ways of being spent. Motocross. Shopping. Television. Amusement parks. Golf. Swimming. Skiiing. Football. Baseball. Horseback riding....

Three out of 4 U.S. students lack a basic understanding of democracy, of how the U.S. political system works and what it means to be a citizen of this country, according to national test scores released Wednesday. That equals a failing grade in civics. Fewer than half the country's eighth-graders were able to identify the purpose of the Bill of Rights on the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Most high school seniors couldn't identify a power granted to Congress by the Constitution or define the term "melting pot." Relatively few fourth-graders understood the concept of majority rule, as expected...

They’re the sort of scores that drive high-school history teachers to drink. When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar....It doesn’t help that the United States has one of the highest levels of income inequality in the developed world, with the top 400 households raking in more money than the bottom 60 percent combined. As Dalton...

NRB’s Kathy Shaidle recently reminded us of the folly of too quickly endorsing celebrities who espouse conservative views. It is a sentiment that was likewise expressed by S.E. Cupp this week on her new internet radio show. In short, we are constantly looking for conservative heroes, and thus constantly setting ourselves up for disappointment. Cupp astutely evoked the one-time fervor behind “Scott Brown for President” as an example. Words are cheap. Our judgment should be reserved for actions. Hollywood curmudgeon Richard Dreyfuss presents a similar disclaimer before waxing political. He shared it in a Poliwood interview with PJTV’s Roger L....

Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams. The following questions were taken from the 2008 Civic Literacy exam. My results: You answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91% Average score for this quiz during January: 75.5% How well will freepers do, compared with the average? I'd guess in the top 10percentile .... with several pulling 100% scores. And the average DUer???? The bottom...

Looks like our elected officials are failing at all sorts of things. Latest on the FAIL list is knowledge of the Constitution. Since many are required to swear (or affirm) an oath to uphold that document, you’d think that they’d know a bit about it. But then again, you might also think that most U.S. citizens would know at least a bit about what’s in the Constitution, right? But you’d be wrong on both counts, of course. As HotAir reports: “The bad news: the general public gets an F, with just a 49% average on the 33-question civics test. The...

There is an undeniable connection between the political battles of the 21st Century and the move away from teaching civics at all levels in the public education system during the later part of the 20th Century. The benefits of reinstituting a solid curriculum of civics into our school system, and ultimately our way of life, will be monumental. We need to look no farther than our television set to find the cause and effect such a slide away from teaching civics has had on America, and in a larger sense, the global society. Academy Award winning actor Richard Dreyfuss is...

Confederacy of Dunces Deborah Lambert, July 21, 2010 Believe it or not, a new opinion poll found that a significant number of Americans do not know the answer to this question: “From which country did the United States win its independence?” Boston.com reported that 26 percent of respondents did not know that the U.S. won its independence from Great Britain, according to a Marist Poll. Six percent believed that the country could have been France, China, Japan, Mexico or Spain. Thirty-two percent of Southerners weren’t sure or picked the wrong country compared to 16% of respondents in the Northeast....

College fails to teach civic knowledge - including American history and national institutions - and has an influence on liberal leanings among students, a new study says. The study, conducted by the conservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute, specifically cited typically liberal positions on gay marriage and school prayer. Richard Brake, the director of ISI's Culture of Enterprise Initiative, said high schools could be partly to blame for a lack of civic knowledge but college courses should provide more concentrated study. "You should reinforce it and go beyond it," he said. "Learning is about reinforcement." The study tested 2,508 Americans with various...

At this link you will find a pretty good civics test. Take it cold - no cheating! See if you know as much as you think.

Among the questions asked by the Goldwater survey were such puzzlers as “What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?” and “Who was the first president of the United States?” The full report will be released shortly, but here are ten of the questions asked, along with the percentage of students who answered them correctly. To pass, the students had only to correctly answer six of the ten questions, pulled at random from a pool of questions from the U.S. citizenship exam. Only 3.5% of the students, all from government schools, passed the test. That’s about 40 out of...

According to a recent study of civics literacy by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute:* Fewer than half of all Americans can name all three branches of government, a minimal requirement for understanding America's constitutional system. * Only 24% of college graduates know the First Amendment prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States. * Nearly a third of the respondents failed to name two of America's enemies in World War Two; 22% of college graduates did not answer that question successfully. * 54% of respondents (and only 44% of 18- to 34-year-olds) knew that Congress shares foreign policy power with...

by Gina L. DiorioAmericans’ lack of basic knowledge of their country’s history and political and economic structure is cause for concern – great concern. According to a new study by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), most Americans – including college graduates – are “civically illiterate.� Of more than 2,500 randomly-selected Americans given a basic 33-question “civic literacy� test, more than 1,700 failed, with 49 percent being the average score. And what’s worse – elected officials fared even more miserably than the general public, garnering an average score of only 44 percent.Lest one think the 33 questions were designed for constitutional scholars,...

Join us everyone at Freedom Radio, the show dedicated exclusively to our men and women in uniform at 8 pm est, tonight, Sunday Nov 30! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedom Yes we are here and we are so at it again. This week we will talk about the lack of History and civics knowledge out there in Freedomland. Why and how has this happened? Why is Obama our President-elect and Murtha is back and up to his usual no good. Tune in and find out. Loki and I look forward to hearing from you!

Civics Quiz Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams.

Voters Fail the Test By Kathleen Parker Tuesday, November 25, 2008; 7:56 PM WASHINGTON -- So much for the wisdom of The People. A new report from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) on the nation's civic literacy finds that most Americans are too ignorant to vote. Out of 2,500 American quiz-takers, including college students, elected officials and other randomly selected citizens, nearly 1,800 flunked a 33-question test on basic civics. In fact, elected officials scored slightly lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent compared to 49 percent. Only 0.8 percent of all test-takers scored an...

America fails a basic test on their history and basic institutions.

WE’RE NOT LED BY THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST: US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday. Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). “It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI’s civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned,” said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy...

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday. Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). "It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI. "How can political leaders make informed...

November 21, 2008, 1:15 p.m. Americans Flunk Basic CivicsBut boy, do we know our American Idol. By Deroy Murdock However you regard the outcome of the November 4 election, it was heartening to watch 125 million Americans cast their ballots at precincts from coast to coast. Unfortunately, they and the many millions more who skipped the whole thing collectively know frightfully little about the government we just reaffirmed, the principles that undergird it, and the basic documents in which those ideas are enshrined. Thus, Americans slouch into the 21st century — a free and confident people blissfully unaware of...

However you regard the outcome of the November 4 election, it was heartening to watch 125 million Americans cast their ballots at precincts from coast to coast. Unfortunately, they and the many millions more who skipped the whole thing collectively know frightfully little about the government we just reaffirmed, the principles that undergird it, and the basic documents in which those ideas are enshrined. Thus, Americans slouch into the 21st Century -- a free and confident people blissfully unaware of how we got here or how we shall continue our 232-year-old tradition of limited self-government. Consider these staggering data: *Fully...

Some news audiences are more politically savvy than others, according to a new poll, with readers of The New Yorker and similar high-brow magazines being the most knowledgeable. The survey, conducted between April 30 and June 1 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, measured the political knowledge of 3,612 U.S. adults. Participants were asked to name the controlling party of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. secretary of state and Great Britain's prime minister. Overall, just 18 percent of participants answered all three questions correctly. More than 50 percent of Americans knew that the...

American kids' mastery of the facts every citizen ought to know has never been impressive. You’ve probably heard statistics like this before: in a survey of 6,000 incoming freshmen at the nation’s top colleges, half didn’t know when the Civil War happened. Half couldn’t locate St. Louis on a map. Only six percent could name the original 13 colonies. And almost two-thirds — remember, this is among students going to top colleges — almost two-thirds got a famous 19th century author mixed up with a contemporary pop music icon. It’s a familiar story, and it’s been in the news again...

Historical Progress? by: Bethany Stotts, July 18, 2008 Despite what Americans have been hearing about the nation’s poor civics literacy, renowned education reformer Diane Ravitch suggests that, on historical subjects at least, civics education may have made “some headway.” She writes in the summer edition of Hoover Digest, “Yet compare [the results of two 1986 and 2007 surveys] I did, and it appears to me that those interviewed in the [Common Core] telephone sample of 2007 were somewhat better informed than their parent’s generation of 1986...On most questions of a factual nature, the proportion who answered correctly was either higher...

Pop Quiz by: Bethany Stotts, July 15, 2008 How much do American high-schoolers know about their literary heritage? A non-profit group called Common Core surveyed 12,000 17-year-olds this year in order to answer just that question. Barely over half (52%) of the surveyed teenagers knew that 1984 was about “a dictatorship in which every citizen was watched in order to stamp out all individuality,” reports Frederick Hess, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Hess authored the Common Core study. Far more prevalent was knowledge of civil-rights-related literature such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Uncle Tom’s Cabin,...

I'm a Chinese and live in Beijing. You may heard about a massive earthquake stroke Sichuan province last month. In this natural disaster, one my fellow people, exactly a teacher, ran before his students and declared his view of personal liberty and freedom regardless his teacher indentity. His allegation has triggered a extensive discussion on humanity and teacher, as a publice servant,responsibility. I know that personal liberty is well developed and protected in US. But, and the same time, US is a country regarding public responsibility especially for those paid by the taxpayers to do their civil job. I came...

Online civics test at the link for any interested.

Don't know much about history By: SUNANA BATRA - For the North County Times Sunday's piece on MiraCosta College offering a citizenship program (Jan. 27, "MiraCosta honors 69 new Americans") allowed me to wax nostalgic about my own experience becoming a naturalized American. But while we insist would-be citizens have the ability to speak, read and write in simple English and also pass an exam in which they must demonstrate a basic understanding of U.S. history and government, we don't require the same from graduating California students. State Sen. Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad) plans to introduce legislation to ensure California high...

The Constitution of the United States established what form of government? Which wall was President Reagan referring to when he said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"? These questions were part of a 60-question test of civic literacy administered to college freshmen and seniors at 50 American colleges and universities. The test (available at www.isi.org) covered American history, government, international relations and economics. The results were disheartening. Freshman overall scored an average 50.4 percent, while seniors improved only to 54.2 percent. Eight of the 50 colleges were left to explain how four years at their institution could actually diminish students'...

Prestigious Universities Flunk Civic Studies by: Nirmala Punnusami, September 19, 2007 The National Civic Literacy Board of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute has just announced the shocking results of its second collegiate study: “Some of America’s most prestigious universities, Yale, Harvard, Cornell, UVA, Brown and Duke, have all flunked basic civic studies.” These results were analyzed at the National Press Club on Tuesday, September 18, 2007. Present at that discussion, was none other than the President of the ISI, himself, Mr. T. Kenneth Cribb Jr. Also present was the distinguished chairman of ISI’s National Civic Literacy Board, Lt. General Josiah Bunting,...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Harvard, even though it scored the highest, was among elite U.S. colleges where students proved dismal in their knowledge of civics and history, a report said. The non-profit Intercollegiate Studies Institute analyzed scores of a test given to 14,419 freshmen and seniors at 50 U.S. colleges last fall, USA Today reported Tuesday. Overall, the freshmen tested averaged 50.4 percent on a civic literacy test, while the seniors tested averaged 54.2 percent. Seniors tested at Harvard had the highest overall average at 69.6 percent, nearly 6 points higher than its freshmen but still a D-plus, said...

America’s Founders were convinced American freedom could survive only if each generation understood its founding principles and the sacrifices made to maintain it. Failing Our Students, Failing America: Holding Colleges Accountable for Teaching America’s History and Institutions asks: Is American higher education doing its duty to prepare the next generation to maintain our legacy of liberty? In fall 2005, researchers at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Public Policy (UConnDPP), commissioned by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s (ISI) National Civic Literacy Board, conducted a survey of some 14,000 freshmen and seniors at 50 colleges and universities. Students were asked 60 multiple-choice...

Seniors at UC Berkeley, the nation's premier public university, got an F in their basic knowledge of American history, government and politics in a new national survey, and students at Stanford University didn't do much better, getting a D. Out of 50 schools surveyed, Cal ranked 49th and Stanford 31st in how well they are increasing student knowledge about American history and civics between the freshman and senior years. And they're not alone among major universities in being fitted for a civics dunce cap. Other poor performers in the study were Yale, Duke, Brown and Cornell universities. Johns Hopkins University...

The Lawrence Journal-World reported that state Representative Pat Colloton (R-Leawood) “...would like to see the state pass laws requiring home schools to supply proof that they’re providing a well-rounded education, complete with citizenship training.� Sometimes you don’t need to pass a new law to find proof. In 2002, Dr. Brian D. Ray studied the civic involvement of homeschoolers. He found that among students who had completed high school in a homeschool setting: 16% more wrote or telephoned an editor or public official, or signed a petition than others. 30% more attended a public meeting.

When one third of Democratic voters say that they believe President Bush knew in advance of 9/11, and a majority of Democrats either believe this nonsense or aren’t sure about it, we are obviously in deep trouble. How has our society and our educational system failed so badly? How can so many people ignore crystal clear facts and reach conclusions of such lunatic proportions?

Seniors at UC Berkeley, the nation's premier public university, got an F in their basic knowledge of American history, government and politics in a new national survey, while students at Stanford University didn't do much better, getting a D. Out of 50 schools surveyed, Cal ranked 49th and Stanford 31st in how well they are increasing student knowledge about American history and civics between the freshman and senior years. And they're not alone among major universities in being fitted for a civics dunce cap. Other poor performers in the study were Yale, Duke, Brown and Cornell universities. Johns Hopkins University...

In a time of war and conflict, when this country must face challenges and opposition, Americans can often be spotted proudly displaying the slogan 'United We Stand' in an attempt to flaunt their patriotism for our country and for our cause. But to David Jackson, founder of Partnerships for Global Education, that jingoistic statement simply is not enough. "I don't want 'United We Stand' just to be a cliché," Jackson explained. "I want it to have real meaning." To that end, Jackson formed his company as a means of providing greater support to the educational institutions across the nation, in...

High school civics courses and even college-level political science classes on the separation of powers can sometimes differ radically from the actual practice. In a time when corruption runs rampant throughout Congress, and the legislative branch consistently succumbs to the executive branch’s agenda, change within the government is necessary, say Thomas Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, co-authors of The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track. Both Mann and Ornstein spoke about their book at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday, July 12 as part of a panel discussion with former Speakers...

Flag Day 2006 was also the fifty-second anniversary of President Eisenhower signing “Joint Resolution 243,” which added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. At the Upper Senate Park, organizations like Concerned Women For America (CWA), The Religious Freedom Coalition, Eagle Forum, Ask For America, and The Traditional Values Coalition held a press conference alongside Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ), Representative Todd Akin (R-MO), Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) to urge Congress to pass the Pledge Protection Act. Representative Akin and Senator Kyl are sponsoring the bills in their respective houses that would protect the...

Stop saying “HAPPY Memorial Day” By Jeff Seeber I hope I live long enough to be able to get through the month of May just once without some moron sending me a HAPPY Memorial Day e-mail or hearing some idiot wishing people a HAPPY Memorial Day. It’s bad enough I’m reminded every May and every November that very few Americans know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, but expecting me to remain silent about the growing trend to turn Memorial Day into some sort of celebration is asking too much. I usually chagrin and bear it, but I’m...

Military Salute, a 34-minute Windows-XP video honoring America’s Armed Forces, past and present, is available online. Visit the Military Salute home page at http://condocat.home.att.net for contents and other information. Individuals, non-profit groups, and organizations with DSL or cable access can view or download the video at no charge from http://www.soldiergifts.com/Military-Salute.html or http://www.rollingsportsman.com/Military-Salute.html. Five disabled Vietnam-era Veterans distribute Military Salute, providing it to active-duty Military units, Veterans groups, family support groups, public safety organizations, church groups, school districts, and students working on patriotic projects. The group, known as The Minnesota Platoon, also participates in fundraising projects that benefit America’s Veterans and...

Big Blue Civics Wal-Mart As students settle in for a new school year across the non-Katrina ravaged country, Wal-Mart is offering American schoolchildren a lesson in Big Blue Civics. The at-heart red-state discount retailer has long been a punching bag for political demagogues. Where I am in New York, there is no nearby Wal-Mart. New York City won't have it. We're way too sophisticated for the Big Blue. The anti-Wal-Mart rhetoric tends to verge on the insane. One Ohio congressman running for president warned ominously that if George Bush's America and his Wal-Mart friends weren't stopped, the store might someday...

CHICAGO -- How well do you know your civics? A survey by a lawyers group suggests many Americans could use a refresher. The American Bar Association poll finds many adults struggle to identify the branches of government -- legislative, executive and judicial -- and have trouble explaining separation of powers. One in five incorrectly said the three branches were Republican, Democrat and independent. Sixteen percent thought the three were local, state and federal. While eight in 10 people said separation of powers is important, fewer than half, when given four choices, correctly picked that "Congress, the president and the federal...

  How many Americans know that one K-12 civics textbook is directly subsidized by our tax dollars? Because of the government subsidy, schools can buy this textbook (high school version) for $10 a copy—about one-fifth the cost of competitor's textbooks. The book is called We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution and is written and published by the Center for Civic Education (CCE). There are three different editions—grade school, middle school and high school. This book was first funded in 1994 by HR6, the spending bill that was part of the Goals 2000, School-to-Work package. This textbook was re-authorized and...

Just wondering, does anyone know IF there was some kind of policy regarding the display of the picture of the President of the United States in classrooms? As a kid, I seem to remember each school having one in each classroom...maybe I'm wrong. Does anyone else have such recollections? I think part of the problem we are currently facing relative to the lack of respect towards the office of the presidency is that we don't honor the office as we once did...feedback?

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - A Supreme Court argument on Wednesday posed a civics question with practical implications: Is a political party's primary election basically the business of the party, or of the state? Oklahoma was appealing a federal court decision that would have allowed political parties to open their nominating process to nonmembers. Along with 23 other states, Oklahoma does not permit voters registered in one party to vote in another party's primary. Independent voters in Oklahoma may choose a party primary in which to vote, but those enrolled in a party may not cross party lines unless they "disaffiliate"...

The purpose of this lesson is to satisfy the California State Language Arts Standards for use of electronic and internet sources, reading comprehension, writing, and analysis of public debate; and Social Science Standards for democracy in action, the American political process, and participation in public debate.

Used to be we could look forward to election day as the day when we got together to decide who was going to represent us. Starting to look like election day this year is going to be only the day when we fire the opening salvo in the battle of the lawyers over who is going to get to represent them. Somehow, I don't think this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind... Just like needing a supermajority in the Senate to get a judge confirmed, we're going to need a lawyer-proof supermajority on Tuesday, followed by genuine electoral...