Sad Summer Laughs from the “Just Kill Me” Files
Tuesday, 22 July 2008 Clay Burell 
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1. Pew News IQ Quiz: America’s college graduates score a D- (61%) on basic news knowledge.
(click for larger image)
Take the Pew quiz here. It’s only 12 questions. It raises a few questions, among which these interest me most:
a) I haven’t lived in the States since ’98, and haven’t consumed any mainstream US news or TV as a habit since then. I get my news primarily from political and cultural blogs. Yet I scored 11/12 correct, compared to 7.4/12 correct for US college graduates. The question: What does this say about the US mainstream media’s performance in contributing to an informed citizenry? (I assume most Americans still watch and read mainstream US news. Maybe I’m wrong.)
b) How does our e-blogosphere and -twittersphere measure up against these results? If we educators are similarly uninformed, are we connecting at the expense of staying informed?
The State of the Republic reflected in these results makes the following two entries a bit more understandable:
2. Texas Board of Education Approves Bible Study Elective Class
Here’s FOX News on the story
(Historically-informed people will notice that the blond “expert” perpetuates the fallacy that America’s founding fathers were Christians, when many of them were either partly or fully Deist, believing little of the miracle stories or other magical claims of the Church. And she’s going to be teaching the classes 
)
The New York Times adds this bit of research, to pre-empt the “there’s nothing wrong with teaching it as history” argument:
Mark Chancey, associate professor in religious studies at Southern Methodist University, has studied Bible classes already offered in about 25 districts. His study found most of the courses were explicitly devotional with almost exclusively Christian, usually Protestant, perspectives. It also found that most were taught by teachers who were not familiar with the issue of separation of church and state.
Since Texas shares with California the biggest sway in national education issues, this bit of nose-thumbing at the Constitutional separation of Church and State is not trivial – instead, it’s a retreat from the third millennium to the first.
Secular and non-Christian parents in Texas must be thrilled to pay for religious indoctrination in their schools. And perhaps the money should go instead to basic geography and geopolitics, as the next item shows:
3. McCain Looks at “Struggle” on the “Iraq-Pakistan Border”
So okay, forgive him on his internet illiteracy, his fifth-from-the-bottom GPA from the Naval Academy, his admitted “need for education” on economics. As he says, he’s still better at foreign policy, right?
I hate to say “wrong,” but jeez, watch this 20-second interview clip and tell me how not to?
McCain: We have a lot of work to do. It’s a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border.
–what else can I say, as a social studies teacher, but sheesh: wrong. There is no Iraq-Pakistan border. (Unless he plans to create one by occupying Iran – surely the most justifiably nervous country on the planet. Sandwiched between the US occupation of Iraq on the west and of Afghanistan on the east, and sitting on some massive oil deposits, wouldn’t you be paranoid about your defense?)
Defenders will say this was maybe a slip-up, or his advisers are there to save us from his “knowledge”-base, or whatever, but I don’t buy it for two reasons: first, we’re seeing a pattern and a history of what I’ll politely call “deficient understanding of basic things” in this candidate; and second, we ignored similar warning signs from the last president and elected him based on his persona instead of his intelligence – and look where that got everybody.
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Tags: constitution, mccain, media, texas Print This Post
No. 1 — July 22nd, 2008 at 9:43 am
The Pew quiz doesn’t seem to determine much other than knowing names of incumbents in certain positions. I wouldn’t call this basic news knowledge. BTW, this Canuck only got 7/12 (the Senator from where?).
Harold Jarches last blog post..User Generated Context for Learning
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No. 2 — July 22nd, 2008 at 9:47 am
@Harold,
Fair enough – I should have added that it’s US-centric. In a hugely important election year, though, I don’t think the questions would be that challenging if the mainstream media had more substance.
Thanks for playing, anyway
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No. 3 — July 22nd, 2008 at 10:08 am
Clay,
] wrong. [Karen, you missed the same one I did.]
Interesting collection of news stories.
I played, too, and got 11/12 – got the [spoiler redacted
(BTW, I hate schooliness, too and prefer learning).
KarenJanowskis last blog post..Students & Learning First
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No. 4 — July 22nd, 2008 at 10:44 am
Got a 10/12 – missing two numbers based questions but getting all the proper nouns in their proper places. I teach a journalism and media studies class and was stunned to discover how little my students knew about current news, both US and world. We would have the weekly, “what’s the lede” from newspapers around the world, but that’s not going to be enough for me any more. This year I’ve decided to require them to be accountable for not just writing the news but reading it. Hate to give the weekly “quiz,” but they will need to read and understand what is making news, how it is being reported, and who is spinning it in which direction.
Now, how to help them see it as something more than just another quiz?
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No. 5 — July 22nd, 2008 at 11:04 am
@Kate,
Fantastic question. For a left-wing current events source, I’d recommed Crooks and Liars for several reasons: a) it’s video-rich, showing clips from the mainstream media and normally criticizing them from a left-wing perspective; b) it’s got a great sense of humor, featuring the Daily Show and Colbert Report clips regularly, as well as political digital storytelling originals; c) it’s link-rich for extensive reading.
BAGNewsNotes is a site I just discovered with very good analysis of visual media in the news.
I wish I were more familiar with the conservative blogs. I know that Drudge Report and Little Green Footballs have a big readership, but don’t know if that means they do good conservative analyses of issues. Maybe somebody else can weigh in.
As for how to prevent it from being schooly? Good question: maybe a group blog approach, or a weekly current events debate spread thinly over the class – two student teams of two squaring off each week or something?
Nice comment. Hope others jump in with more ideas on this one.
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No. 6 — July 22nd, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Wow, that really is astounding.
For the record, nothing there is very hard if you follow even a few political blogs. I scored a 12/12 and I’m certainly not a college graduate. That being said, it definitely is US-centric.
My question is what *does* McCain understand? Not technology, not foreign policy, not economics, and *not* voters.
Some good political blogs are Crooks & Liars, the Drudge Report, Politico. I also read some local ones.
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No. 7 — July 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I used to like the old joke: Why do Americans go to war? So they’ll learn geography.
Thanks for ruining another good joke, senator. Hugs not drugs, my friend.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1188858/posts
Bill Farrens last blog post..Essential 2 GDP
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No. 8 — July 22nd, 2008 at 11:49 pm
@Bill – Ouch, that hurts. I’m a veteran, and learned my Balkan geography as a NATO peacekeeper in Kosovo. *blush*
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No. 9 — July 23rd, 2008 at 12:48 am
Clay, interesting survey. I,too, got the number questions incorrect but at least I know Microsoft Word… That can’t be a real ad, can it?
I’m curious to know why no one has commented on the second story about teaching the Bible in HS. That, to me, is very scary, and I see it happening in my school in NE Florida. (Texas and Florida are married first cousins…really) I can’t remember what they are calling the class, but I do know that they aren’t teaching all religions. I wish we could get the car out of reverse.
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No. 10 — July 23rd, 2008 at 7:51 am
@PaulV8,
I didn’t notice an MSWord ad, so ??
People rarely comment when I discuss the Superhero in the Classroom. Since it’s still an important issue that the media and other educators seem to fear addressing (often for good reason: Married first cousins form dangerous tribes), I don’t mind doing my part by speaking out.
It’s a losing battle, of course, trying to deprogram the teachings of fear and emotion adults have received since pre-school. But science deserves the defense.
Thanks for stopping by.
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No. 11 — July 23rd, 2008 at 8:38 am
The MSWord thingy was part of the McCain ad about learning to use the internet.
I work hard not to discuss religion in my English classroom, but sometimes it comes up (like Jonathan Edwards’ sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” which I no longer teach). I use a powerpoint I borrowed from Dana Huff (at huffenglish.com) about Transcendentalism. She teaches in a Jewish school and omits a letter when writing G-d. My students notice it and can’t understand why people would do that. It’s a small world after all (a small Baptist world that is).
Thanks for at least putting it out there.
PaulV8s last blog post..iPhone Updates: Prologue and Mdot
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No. 12 — July 23rd, 2008 at 11:40 pm
For fun, I just read the quiz to my 14-year old while he was eating breakfast. The kicker? The survey at the end assumes that those taking the quiz are 18 and older and that “not finishing high school” is the lowest possible education level for participants. Yes, I get the legal issues and the need to focus the survey (although there are no-brainer tech solutions to this), and ultimately the quiz is a three-minute blip in the noise.
But what an ironic message: we want kids to be politically aware, but ultimately they “don’t count” (don’t even exist!) for a national survey? If we want youth engagement, maybe we need to ask how many other tacit messages like this are floating around… (OK– he got 11/12 as “fill in the blank” answers while chewing his Cheerios, without even being offered the multiple choice options. I was 11/12– different error– with the hints. Parent life– so proud, so humble ☺.)
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No. 13 — July 24th, 2008 at 6:54 am
Hmm, I got 7 out of 12, but then, I’m Canadian as well. I second the first comment – it seems like a strange set of questions. Is this the sort of knowledge that is really critical to interact as a citizen in the United States? I might suggest that it is more important to be grounded in the basics of the issues that are important (the Iraq War, global warming, etc) and how to actually analyze and construct an argument than memorizing the names of people who are not all that difficult to look up.
Actually, the quiz reminds me of the post that you did the other day on history (which my wife and I had a great time reading – we took the quiz ourselves). Rephrasing the questions of the Pew quiz in light of that post: would you rather that people had a grasp of the flow of history and the historical issues that have shaped our world, or would you rather that they memorize the names of every Pope? (I know that I’m spinning a false dichotomy here, but I still think that if effort is going to be placed in one direction over the other, I would prefer that it go towards the type of understanding you championed in your previous post). Leave the memorization to the history majors, I say.
Winawers last blog post..Out to the boonies!
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No. 14 — July 24th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Hi Winawer,
Good feedback, and I agree to the criticism of the quiz to a degree, but: since all the names mentioned in the quiz are current power-holders shaping policy on all the big issues, from Iraq to global warming to the economy, on a national level, I want to argue that familiarity with the national policies on most issues should breed familiarity with the policy-makers’ names. They’re embedded in the news about the policies themselves, and should arguably be incidental learning for anyone who stays informed (via the media) about current affairs.
So “memorizing” the names wouldn’t be necessary (I didn’t memorize them), since they’re part of the territory of staying informed of the issues. Know what I mean?
PS. I read your post about the MN professor and the communion wafer “crisis,” and could not believe my eyes. What a country.
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No. 15 — July 24th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
I’d have to agree that knowing who the Fed Chairman or the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq isn’t vital to understanding the issues. However, I’d have to bet that the Pew quiz makers are banking (har-dee-har) on the fact that if you’re familiar with U.S. economic policy you’d come across who the Chairman of the Federal Reserve is a few times, and thus remember (as Clay mentioned).
I did do surprisingly well (12/12, woot) considering I think the only regular news program I catch is the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. By the way Jon Stewart commented on his show about McCain’s geography gaffe, citing McCain as beating Obama to the punch at a gaffe during Obama’s trip to Iraq.
“McCain: It’s a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border.
Stewart: The Iraq-Pakistan border, otherwise known as… IRAN.”
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No. 16 — July 24th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Ben, I’m with you on the Daily Show. It is the only tv “news” program I watch, and I enjoy every minute of it. Of course, I keep up to date throughout the day with feeds.
Maybe McCain *does* know what he is saying. After all, there *is* a situation in Iran.
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No. 17 — July 24th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
@Morgante I thought the same thing (McCain knowing what he’s saying). Maybe he’s slyly trying to suggest if elected he’ll take military action on Iran. I’m not sure I’d give him that much credit though.
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No. 18 — July 24th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Morgante and Ben, You beat me. I thought I’d be the first to say that my prime mainstream news source is the Daily Show. NPR’s Wait Wait is my other mainstream source. Otherwise, I get my news online from all kinds of places. 11/12, but the right answers in multiple choice tests jump out at me–a truly useless skill since I finished school. I tell my students this all the time. Ask me the same questions as fill-in-the blank and who knows.
Winawer, you are right about being grounded on the issues being more necessary than name recall. Clay’s observation that being well-grounded leads to name recall is probably true for most, though certainly not all, people. I fear that most Americans who can’t do the name recognition part wouldn’t fare much better on an essay about the issues either. All Kinds of Minds has done some interesting work on specific word recognition and/or recall skills showing that they vary widely from individual to individual.
Clay, My ulterior motive for commenting though is to find out how the wiimote in Korean went. My one piece of advice is to get some heat-shrinkable insulation for your wires. I built a few for our school (in English!) and now I’m not sure what to do with them (which I wrote about on my blog, but I’m not trying to generate traffic). My classroom isn’t really all about me or anything I’m “doing” on the board, but the inexpensive nature of the wiimote made me think I needed to revisit my dismissal of interactive whiteboards. I’ll be interested in what you experience. Just building them was fun.
Sarah
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No. 19 — July 25th, 2008 at 8:11 am
[...] malaise, though. Felated: Why history isn’t learned. Clay Burell, Beyond School, July 24, 2008 [Link] [Tags: United States, Gaming] [...]
No. 20 — July 26th, 2008 at 12:28 am
What alarmed me was the huge gulf between the genders.
I got 10/12. That put me in the 83rd percentile. But women as a whole were in the 39th percentile. 39!!! Men were 56. What the heck??
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