Complaining about civics illiteracy is as American as ignorance itself

05-09-2011

Opinion by Peter Schrag/Thoughts on Public Education

Peter Schrag is the former editorial page editor and columnist of the Sacramento Bee.

“Ignorance of U.S. History Shown by College Freshmen,” the headline said. “Survey of 7,000 Students in 36 Institutions Discloses Vast Fund of Misinformation On Many Basic Facts.” Sound familiar? In fact, the headline, above a long story in the New York Times, appeared on April 4, 1943. Its main point was that colleges were not requiring American history despite the fact that their entering students, in the indignant words of Times Education Editor Benjamin Fine, “displayed a woeful ignorance” of their own heritage. “They could not identify such names as Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson or Theodore Roosevelt,” the story said. Some thought Walt Whitman was a bandleader. Less than half could name two of the powers granted Congress by the Constitution, “while only 45 percent could name four of the specific freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.” One said the Constitution granted Congress the “the power of voting on the appeasement of the president.” The 1943 story came to mind with another New York Times story, this one published last week and headed “Failing Grades on Civics Exam Called a ‘Crisis.’” (more...)

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Complaining about civics illiteracy is as American as ignorance itself

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