America - Home of The Politically Ignorant
by Thomas D. Segel (11/1/08)
Harlingen, Texas, October31, 2008: For most of my adult life I have thought that America must rank in the top tier of politically ignorant nations. I came to this conclusion after reflecting on my own primary and secondary education and observing a public that lacks the basic knowledge of our governmental system.
I attempted to correct what I perceived as a huge problem by entering into the public education system with a degree in government. I cannot speak knowledgeably about other states, but in Texas the only education a student receives in government is one semester during his or her senior year in high school. That is correct, a student must take one semester in government and one semester in economics to graduate. That is about four months of a twelve year education is spent explaining how we govern 300 million people.
If that sounds impossible to you, it gets even worse. The one semester on government is divided, with half of it being spent on Texas State Government and the second half on U.S. Government.
So, in the Lone Star State a high school graduate walks off the campus with about two months of knowledge on how his or her country functions in this world. But, it is even worse than it appears. The one-year I taught government, most of my students were in advanced placement…or college bound. I utilized the complete text during that year, having my students read everything cover to cover. The teacher across the hall took his students through one third of the same text. That was their education in government.
One other thing to consider is only about 68% of Texas students complete twelve years of education and receive their diploma. This translates into 32% of all Texas students have received absolutely no instruction in American government.
Needless to say I left public education in disgust after only one year in the classroom. I spent the next ten years on the university campus where a bit more in governmental education was required. To earn that four-year degree, undergraduates were required to complete one course in state and one course in U.S. government. This means 6 hours of a 120 to 128 hour degree were spent learning about how we run the United States of America.
For a long time, watching the Tonight Show, I thought Jay Leno just culled the stupidest answers out of many good responses and placed the dumb comments on television. Slowly, my mind was changed. We really do have a vast army of dummies walking our planet.
This week John Stossel had a very intereting column. His contention was…. it would be better if some people never voted. In the column he wrote about the political ignorance he encountered around the country. He asked simple questions at a rock concert where a voter registration drive was being held. Those signed up to vote couldn’t tell him the number of Senators in Congress or Representatives in the House. Their answers ranged from 12 all the way to 50 per state.
In Washington D.C. people were asked to identify pictures of public officials. All could name Barack Obama and John McCain. However, that seemed to be the extent of their knowledge. Nobody knew Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg, but everyone knew Judge Judy.
Stossel argued it might be politically incorrect to suggest…but it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the politically uninformed to stay home on Election Day. I tend to agree.
Semper Fidelis,
Thomas D. Segel
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