How about a few civics questions? Name the three branches of
government. If you answered the executive, legislative and judicial,
you are more informed than 50 percent of Americans. The Delaware-based
Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) recently released the results
of their national survey titled "Our Fading Heritage: Americans Fail a
Basic Test on Their History and Institutions." The survey questions
were not rocket science.
Only 21 percent of survey respondents knew that the phrase "government
of the people, by the people, for the people." comes from President
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Almost 40 percent incorrectly
believe the Constitution gives the president the power to declare war.
Only 27 percent know the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits
establishing an official religion for the United States. Remarkably,
close to 25 percent of Americans believe that Congress shares its
foreign policy powers with the United Nations.
Among the total of 33 questions asked, others included: "Who is the
commander in chief of the U S. military?” "Name two countries
that were our enemies during World War II." "Under our Constitution,
some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the
federal government?" Of the 2,508 nationwide samples of Americans
taking ISI's civic literacy test, 71 percent failed; the average score
on the test was 49 percent.
ISI findings about cultural illiteracy and academic incompetence are
nothing new. A 1990 Gallup survey for the National Endowment of the
Humanities, given to a representative sample of 700 college seniors,
found that 25 percent did not know that Columbus landed in the Western
Hemisphere before the year 1500; 42 percent could not place the Civil
War in the correct half-century; and 31 percent thought Reconstruction
came after World War II.
In 1993, a Department of Education survey found that among college
graduates 50 percent of whites and more than 80 percent of blacks
couldn't state in writing the argument made in a newspaper column; 56
percent could not calculate the right tip; 57 percent could not figure
out how much change they should get back after putting down $3.00 to
pay for a 60-cent bowl of soup and a $1.95 sandwich, and over 90
percent could not use a calculator to find the cost of carpeting a
room. But not to worry. A 1999 survey taken by the American Council of
Trustees and Alumni of seniors at the nation's top 55 liberal-arts
colleges and universities found that 98 percent could identify rap
artist Snoop Dogg and Beavis and Butt-Head, but only 34 percent knew
George Washington was the general at the battle of Yorktown.
With limited thinking abilities and knowledge of our heritage, we
Americans set ourselves up as easy prey for charlatans, hustlers and
quacks. If we don't know the constitutional limits placed on Congress
and the White House, politicians can do just about anything they wish
to control our lives, from deciding what kind of light bulbs we can use
to whether the government can take over our health care system or
bailout failing businesses. We just think Congress can do anything upon
which they can get a majority vote.
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute has one finding that I find both
a bit perplexing but encouraging. Roughly 70 percent of Americans, even
those who failed the test, agreed that our history, culture and
institutions are important and should be taught to our college
students. They might even agree with Thomas Jefferson who warned, "If a
nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it
expects what never was and never will be."
