I’m certain I did not, in college, study anything that would have helped me on the poll. On the other hand, I would have known most either from high school or osmosis.
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Duh, she won’t get on the bench until judge Wapner dies
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I distinctly remember Vice President Julia Louis-Dreyfus casting the tie-breaking Senate vote to put her on the court.
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I think these “grads” must have all come from Liberty University.
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This year’s freshmen college class was born in 1997. That means they are the first college class to have never conceivably licked a stamp (USPS switched to sticker stamps in 1997). I made a reference to David Bowie last week and they all stared at me like I was from Mars. Only one of my college students had even heard of him. The most recognition I got was when I mentioned that he sang Under Pressure with Queen. About half of my students had heard of Queen.
Now you feel old.
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I disagree with the headline. The question itself was set up for just such a result. It asked “Which of the following people serves on the U.S. Supreme Court?” and the choices were:
Elena Kagan
Lawrence Warren Pierce
John Kerry
Judith Sheindlin
Refused
21.7% chose Pierce, even though he never rose above the Court of Appeals of the 2nd circuit (duh!). But Kagan was only appointed in 2010. So only college grads, who graduated in the last five years had any shot at learning that she was on the SCOTUS as part of their civic education classes. You can argue whether or not they should know that from the news, but it says nothing about civic education! Basically, they gave a list that only included the most recent judge and then a bunch of other names that might tickle people’s memory, even if they can’t remember why. I guarantee you that if the question was structured as follows, no one would have said Judge Judy was on the SCOTUS:
Which of the following is NOT on the Supreme Court:
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Antonin Scalia
John Roberts
Clarence Thomas
Judith Sheindlin
Another question they asked to ‘prove’ there is a crisis in civic education was what does habeas corpus mean? Only 66.0% were able to correctly identify it as protecting against illegal imprisonment. But is knowing the latin really important, or is just knowing that the country cannot illegally imprison you what matters? Basically, the guys who fashioned this poll were after a certain result so they could beg for funding for civic education. They fashioned questions that should guarantee that. The poll respondents performed better than they expected, and they are forced to sensationalize it is the loudest way possible.
This ‘poll’ was absolute dreck.
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I’d like to know how they define the “college” that these kids are graduates of. Does this include bible colleges? Community colleges focusing on specific trades and avocations? Phoenix University and other for-profit scam institutions? If it does, then it’s much less indicative of the quality of education at accredited four-year liberal arts institutions.
Sorry, TPM. A non-story. Less than 10 percent believing something dumb is not headline worthy.
I’ve said it before, and I shall say it again, and again,. No matter how unpopular it may cause me to become, I shall say it until it changes.
America is raising idiots, because stupid people are easier to control.
I won’t cushion it with terms like “Low -information” or any of the other drivel you hear from people trying to win votes and influence (other) stupid people.
In this day and age, there is more information available to those who earnestly seek it than any other time or in any other civilization in the known history of the world.
There can only be one sad and sorry explanation for the enforced and welcome layers of sheer idiocy that blanket people who think something like this.
They are students of higher education, so any “pass” they might get for being poor students in High School is GONE.
There comes a point where the individual is responsible for their own education. This is a part of good citizenship (something else that popular culture and “me first” has forcibly bred out of Americans.) This links with something else unpopular which I continue to maintain.
The reason that America’s “Government” has come to such a condition as it is now for one reason only:
The “Citizens” of America became that way first. The Government reflects the state and will of the governed.
So it does not surprise me that many cannot name the justices of the Supreme Court, any more than it would surprise me to find out that a good many Americans think the Moon (which they maintain America never landed upon) was made of green cheese.
Because Modern day Americans really are just that plain STUPID. They were raised that way. So what should we expect? Instead of “The Best and Brightest” sitting in your State houses and your House and Senate, you get people like Ted Crazy, Donald Dump, and the other clown car idiots.
So, all in all, no surprise here. Just another instance of “The Greatest Nation on Earth” showing off what is in her mind.
Excrement.
When I was in College I was given a fairly similar survey. It was at the tail end of my day on a Friday. After we were told it was not for a grade and anonymous… I promptly answered “C” to everything and went home.
I’d like to see a breakdown between actual universities and so-called “universities” like Liberty. Evangelical and other religious-based schools have been a feature of the American college landscape since their origins in the federal land grants program, but the post Scopes Monkey Trial push by fundy orgs has really upped the percentage of post-secondary ‘educational’ institutions that are faith-based and deep into denial of evolution, climate change and science in general. My surmise is the level of general American institutional ignorance is bound to be measurably greater in faith-based colleges and schools, as a general matter.
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Fair point, storm. Not all of these facts are covered in general curricula. For that matter, a college education wouldn’t help everyone.
This study and my comment can only speak to the population, not to the experience of individuals. I still think a college education is beneficial at the margins without requiring specific courses. (This survey is supposed to convince us that every college should require a civics class.) The “osmosis” of knowledge is far more likely to occur in an environment where people are studying these topics. Also, I believe that an active mind that has been better trained to retain, recall, and apply knowledge of any kind is going to do a better job of accessing all learning, such as from high school.