Study Shows Shocking Number of College Grads Have Limited Knowledge of the Constitution
I bet most college students know about rape culture and microaggressions, though.
The College Fix reported.
STUDY: Shocking number of college graduates are idiots when it comes to the Constitution
As if you didn’t have enough reasons to put on sackcloth and ashes when it comes to today’s college students…
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni released the results of a new “Constitution Day” survey that found college graduates know shockingly little about our system of government:
According to the study, nearly 10% of college graduates think Judith Sheindlin — commonly known as Judge Judy — is on the Supreme Court; one-third of college graduates can’t identify the Bill of Rights as a name given to a group of Constitutional amendments; and 32% believe that Representative John Boehner is the current president of the U.S. Senate. Shockingly, 46% of college grads don’t know the election cycle — six years for senators, two years for representatives.
Wonder why?
Only 18% of America’s colleges and universities require students to take a course in American history or government.
It’s more depressing when it comes to the general public’s knowledge, if that’s even possible.
STUDY: Shocking number of college graduates are idiots when it comes to the Constitution (The College Fix)
Comments
Sorry, this boils down to lazy, lazy, lazy! There are no excuses for not knowing correct history or the Constitution in spite of what passes for history and civics in the class room. With a smart phone in every hand, those students are more willing to look up and learn about the most trivial things and yet have no shame about being totally ignorant of what is really important. What is shockingly stupid is that colleges and universities admit these students in the first place. Then there is that ed major. The students who graduate with teaching degrees and get hired to pass on historical misinformation are perpetuating the cycle of stupidity. No, the current system was designed to deprive the students of the knowledge that they need on purpose and that poll is proof that it worked. The powers that be can’t impose tyranny on an informed republic.
Well, after reading the actual report, it’s not obvious that things are awful. Most of the respondents got most of it right. The real clanger was the one about who was the “Father of the Constitution”. Most went with Jefferson. Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, but had nothing at all to do with the Constitutional Convention; he was ambassador to France at the time. Madison sent him a copy of the proposed Constitution, but Jefferson expressed strong reservations; though he later wrote that the addition of the Bill of Rights obviated those, and that the final product was a fine piece of work. But one would have to be a fairly serious US History geek to know that, and I wouldn’t do much hand-wringing if a college graduate knew little about such historical minutiæ.