Civics quiz: Test your self-esteem

By Bill Springer

Recently the well-known Reaganesque-haired columnist Cal Thomas wrote about the lack of knowledge of college freshmen after taking a nationwide civics exam. The best of a plethora of schools was a D-minus.

I tested a group of 29 college freshmen, and the average score was a 49 percent.

The obvious conclusion is that they are dumber than a box of doorknobs.

I took the quiz, and my grade was a 79 percent. I felt like a genius, all things being obvious. Two of the questions, not to be a nitpicking quibbler, I missed because I read the questions too quickly. I despise multiple choice test and was seeking the essence of the question instead of reading carefully.

It seems as if every succeeding generation, no matter the educational or economic status, loves to tell the following generations that they didn't "larn nuthin'" and "when I was in school" and "you have it so easy, they'd a'whupped me."

Give me freakin' break.

So much for sanctimonious generational superiority.

For 37 years I taught high school students (now I am teaching freshmen in college), and I double-dang dare you to make the remark that this generation is "dum," much less dumb. I have had the privilege of spending time with some of the brightest, most creative people in the world.

Get off your high horse, Cal. This generation is the group that will make the decisions concerning your future.

Some of them have seen "Soylent Green."

In a recent class discussion after taking the quiz, there were feelings expressed from "the test was not what it appeared to be" to "I feel dumb."

OK, I have read de Tocqueville's analysis of America, but I still missed the question. How many of you even know who the heck he was? Alex, you know? From France?

One of the questions I missed was about the Jamestown time frame. I knew the answer, but, dang, I felt pressured. How about the role of the Federal Reserve? Explain inflation. This was more than a civics quiz.

State testing, aka the Missouri Assessment Program, asks questions about the civil-rights movement and the gender movement. There was one question about that, and I got it right.

Recently, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda were in the news with their great concern for education. Gates says there should be more rigorous testing. More rigorous than what?

I am sick and tired of the president, Gates and other self-serving potentates making sweeping charges about our schools, especially public schools. I am sick and tired of the excuse given by education that it's the parents' fault. I am sick and tired of teachers blaming the testing program that has no consequence for students. I am sick and tired of the assumption that all students will be reading at grade level by 2014. I am sick and tired of more and more dumbing down and special tutoring to pass some test. I am sick and tired about being sick and tired.

For years schools produced brilliant, hard-working citizens who have continued the American dream of being the best they can be. I know who you are, and I am proud of you. I have friends who work at manual labor, others who are doctors and judges and two on death row. They are all happy with their lives. OK, maybe not the two on death row.

I challenge all of you to take the civics quiz at www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx.

Take it only once. Come on, be honest. What do you have to lose beside your self-esteem?

Bill Springer resides in Cape Girardeau.