Civics Quiz

An online civics quiz is being discussed a lot on blogs and talk radio. You guessed it - yet another study showing just how ignorant Americans are of basic (okay, maybe not basic as some of the questions are much tougher than the typical Jaywalking question) American history, government and economics.

According to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute,

More than 2,500 randomly selected Americans took ISI’s basic 33question test on civic literacy and more than 1,700 people failed, with the average score 49 percent, or an “F.” Elected officials scored even lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent and only 0.8 percent of all surveyed earned an “A.”

So I decided to let my eleven year old daughter take the quiz. She answered correctly 18 out of 33 (55%) with absolutely no help from me. Not bad.

Here is a screen shot of my score:




Addendum: Here is what Walter Williams said about the consequences of such lack of understanding of Constitutional principles as displayed by this quiz.

"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."