This Just In...
Kevin Fischer is an award-winning veteran broadcaster who has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for nearly three decades.
Kevin, who is a legislative aide to state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, “INTERchange,” on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, in Franklin.
Herman's Hermits sang it over 40 years ago, still true today: Don't know much about history...
By Kevin Fischer
Friday, Jul 4 2008, 07:33 AM
Naomi Wolf reported some grim news last winter about our nation’s young people and their dreadful lack of knowledge about the country they call home:
“According to a recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics, only 47 percent of high school seniors have mastered a minimum level of U.S. history and civics, while only 14 percent performed at or above the "proficient" level. Middle schoolers in many states are no longer required to take classes in civics or government. Only 29 states require high school students to take a government or civics course, leaving millions of young Americans in the dark about why democracy matters.
A survey released by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in September found that U.S. high school students missed almost half the questions on a civic literacy test. Only 45.9 percent of those surveyed knew that the sentence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" is in the Declaration of Independence. Yet these same students can probably name the winner of "American Idol" in a heartbeat.”
The situation isn’t any better on college campuses. It is a national travesty that many of our nation’s college students, including those attending some of the most prestigious schools in America, know very little about our Presidents. College seniors achieved less than 60 percent correct on a series of questions about U.S. presidents.
It’s imperative that today’s students learn about American history in order that they can be productive, informed, engaged citizens. That’s not happening on our campuses that are generating an abysmal record of turning out well-informed American historians. America's colleges and universities fail to increase knowledge about America's history and institutions. This disturbing trend has been labeled ”The Coming Crisis in Citizenship.”
How sad is the current state of affairs on campus? The average senior at every college scored below 70 percent correct on a civic literacy examination. This would be a D or F on a basic test using a conventional grading scale. Even at colleges with the highest scoring seniors, no class of seniors scored higher than 69 percent, or D+. Seniors at 22 of the 50 schools scored on average below 50 percent, and seniors at four of the colleges had an average score below 40 percent. That’s pathetic.
It’s clear our schools aren’t getting the job done when it comes to instruction about basic American history and political science. More emphasis needs to be placed in this area if our kids are going to develop into conscientious civic-minded citizens.
Now, how would you do if you took a citizenship test?
