75 Percent of Oklahoma High School Students Can't Name the First President of the U.S.

[subcomhd]

It says a conservative group commissioned it so...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Only one in four Oklahoma public high school students can name the first President of the United States, according to a survey released today.

The survey was commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs in observance of Constitution Day on Thursday.

Brandon Dutcher is with the conservative think tank and said the group wanted to find out how much civic knowledge Oklahoma high school students know.


http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=11141949

[discocrisco01]

1. Lack of Knowledge

It has shown how moronic this country has become. Obession with reality shoe. I only took AP US History, but I can blow people away with my knowledge of history.

[Betty]

2. no child left behind, huh?

pathetic.

[Iggo]

3. How much knowledge they know?

Um...

[Ozymanithrax]

4. The willful destruction of the public schools by conservatives...

They are educating good Conservatvies.

Besides, we all know that George Washington was a liberal.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Wie iz stoopid.

[NaturalHigh]

6. I read about this yesterday.

As a former history teacher from Oklahoma, I am appalled.

[tkmorris]

12. Appalled, sure, but are you surprised?

[NaturalHigh]

14. Frankly, yes.

I would have thought that almost anyone could have named the first president. For that matter, I would have thought that almost anyone could have answered that the first ten amendments to the Constitution were collectively known as the Bill of Rights and that the president is the head of the executive branch.

I guess I was being overly optimistic.

[aikoaiko]

7. Poor John Hansen

;-)

[armyowalgreens]

23. DINGDINGDING.

We have a winner.

[TxRider]

8. It's commisioned by a conservative think tank

For the purposes of pushing vouchers for private and religious schools in Oklahoma.

It wouldn't serve their agenda very well if showed the kids were getting a decent education now would it?

[Brother Buzz]

10. The leading conservative think tank in Oklahoma and connected to the Heritage Foundation

Agenda indeed.

[Hannah Bell]

9. i don't believe it. consider the source. i'd bet the result was rigged somehow.

[Iggo]

11. Yeah. There's no fucking way 3/4 of the HS kids...

...don't know Geo Washington was the 1st Pres.

I call bullshit.

[TxRider]

31. Of course it was, it was done for the purposes of pushing vouchers

By a conservative think tank..

[hvn_nbr_2]

13. I think I know what the problem is.

The conservative group that commissioned it thinks Ronald Reagan was the father of his country and the first president. So everybody who said "George Washington" failed.

[Historic NY]

15. Whats really disturbing is the "Germans bombing Pearl Harbor".

[Hannah Bell]

17. i think you're overly gullible.

[petronius]

34. Forget it, he's rolling...

:)

[LostInAnomie]

16. Red State

'nuff said.

[Rex]

18. Was it Wolf Blitzer?

I will take 'stupid' for $200 Pat.

[Czar One]

20. The Reddest!

Not one damn district went for Obama last November!

[iceman66]

19. Are you surprised?

This is the state that elected both James Inhofe AND Tom Coburn.

I'm sure there are some smart people there, but they are obviously greatly outnumbered!

[billh58]

21. I have seen

similar results before, where a standard "citizenship test" was given to average Americans, and an embarrassingly large number failed miserably. To be entirely fair, however, applicants for US citizenship tend to study material specifically focused on the questions to be asked.

Still, the American educational system leaves much to be desired, and the neoconservative purposeful "dumbing down" of our citizens is apparently working.

[armyowalgreens]

22. George Washington was not the first president of the US.

Just an FYI.

[Iggo]

25. I had to look it up.

They didn't teach that at my school...lol.

[Libertas1776]

24. I have said this before

and I'll say it again, there should be some kind of citizenship test required in order to vote. Now, I now the connotations some of you may think of, and no, I do not mean a literacy test. It should be an oral test, in fact. I think you should at least have to know that there are three branches of govt, what they are, what year this country was founded, and at least who the first POTUS was before you get to decide who the leader of the free world will be.

[Kaylee]

26. That cannot be true....I refuse to believe 75% don't

know something my 2nd grader learned in kindergarten.

[pampango]

27. Here's nonconservative take on the whole thing.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/77_oklahoma_high_school_students_cant_name_1st_president/

"I simply don’t believe these results are accurate. I taught Politics 101 to college freshmen for a decade, so I’m under no illusion that our kids have a strong working knowledge of how our system works. (Indeed, having administered basic geography tests as part of my World Politics course, I’m shocked that 61% not only know the Atlantic Ocean but that they know east from west.) I could see students not knowing the answers to several of the questions above, especially framed as they are. But, seriously, your average 6-year-old knows who George Washington is. They couldn’t tell you anything about his administration, of course, but they know: wooden teeth, chopped down cherry tree, couldn’t tell a lie, Martha, and 1st president. It’s, frankly, trivia. (And hagiography in the case of the cherry tree fable.) But they know it nonetheless."

Here's a link for the actual test results:

http://www.ocpathink.org/publications/perspective-archives/september-2009-volume-16-number-9/?module=perspective&id=2321

"Interestingly, too, the right answer was the plurality actual response answer on almost every question. And the runner-up answers were, for the most part, non-idiotic. So, 17% thought the Declaration of Independence was the supreme law of the land, compared to 28% correctly identifying the Constitution and 41% “I don’t know.” Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt, and John Adams were the most popular wrong answers on 1st president.

The chief “wrong” answer on the “Who is in Charge of the Executive Branch” question was “the Governor,” which garnered 10%. That’s actually right, since the question doesn’t specify federal or state. Similarly, shouldn’t the 11% who answered that the two parties are Communist and Republican be scored correctly? (I jest, of course.)"

[davidpdx]

28. I have to wonder if some of those people who marched last week

could name ANY of the presidents. It seemed to me they were a bunch of ignorant rednecks.

[asdjrocky]

29. Bet ya they know all the words to that song though.

[Okie4Obama]

30. Part of the problem is who teaches history in Oklahoma...

To get a job teaching history in Oklahoma, you have to be ready to coach a sport. I work for a history professor at the teachers college for Oklahoma, and the lack of writing skills among even college juniors and seniors there is appalling. Oklahoma is a frightening place to live, and, as soon as the recession is over, I am out of here.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

32. You mean it WASN'T Jesus???

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

33. They still get two Senators, right?

No matter how friggin' clueless they are, they're allowed to elect members of Congress who will attempt to pass laws just as stupid as the people who sent them to Washington.

And the same asshats who defund public education at every turn will say that this is "proof" that public education doesn't work, and should be defunded even more.