What Are They Teaching Those Children?
I’m not quite finished with my gossip session (har, har), but I couldn’t resist this online quiz. I haven’t subjected you to one for a long time, and this one is actually more highbrow than most. Think of it in the way Dr. Grant describes his quizzes: an “opportunity.” I found it via Crimson Wife at Bending the Twigs, who left a comment on the post about the dearth of books in many homes and the inevitable consequences of growing up without them. She is a Roman Catholic homeschooling mom, and to show my goodwill to her, this reformed homeschooling mom will post a Chesterton quote on the next post. Crimson Wife is Irish, like me (and a northern Californian like me, too), so we technically shouldn’t like G.K. who was very English, but who can help liking him. Besides disliking the English, the Irish are also known for their loquaciousness and tempers, and that is how I’m tying this divergent post to the topic of the week.
But back to the quiz first. Here’s what Crimson Wife says:
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute did a survey of 14,000 college freshmen & seniors at 50 universities to test their knowledge of U.S. civics. The results were pretty dismal as the overall average score for seniors was a mere 54.2%. Even the elite schools in the sample had poor showings:
- Harvard 69.56%
- Yale 65.85%
- Brown 65.64%
- UVA 65.28%
- Penn 63.49%
- Duke 63.41%
- Princeton 61.9%
- Cornell 56.95%
- UC Berkeley 56.27%
I scored 88.3% with my auto-didactic secondary school education. It’s nice to know that if I ever need something to fall back on, I can probably make it in the Ivy leagues. Perhaps I’m not doing my daughters such a disservice to continue directing their education from home.
If you are inclined to take it and don’t mind a little transparency, I’d be interested in your score and your level of education (that information is also requested at the end of the online test), plus your opinion as to whether formal education helped you in your answers or if you think you learned them another way. By the way, Dr. Grant recently posted this quote from James Schall:
I think in general that you can get a terrible education in the best and most expensive universities and that in fact most students do.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:49 am
70.0% – and I’m a Canadian who never took most of this in school. My undergrad degree in English from a small private university was no help.
November 27th, 2007 at 3:35 am
91.7%. Graduate of public high school, B.A. from small private university, and doctorate from large public university.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:00 am
81.67% – BA, Hillsdale College
Yes, imo, my *formal* education helped me a lot, but in my family, the institutional academics were supplemented by at-home discussion and teaching.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:32 am
I didn’t finish because I knew I was doing bad.The test to me is to see how I remember from being in school over 30 years ago-not much.Now if I was reading books on history every day or was in school just learning these facts then I would have probably could see that I was doing well on the quiz!!
November 27th, 2007 at 5:35 am
80% – quite a bit of guessing, though.
Undergraduate degree in English from small state college. Homeschooling my own helped far more than my formal education.
November 27th, 2007 at 6:10 am
76.67% (a lot of guessing:)) BA from Whitman College.
The only thing that helped was my personal reading over the last few years to get myself ready for homeschooling and being married to my hubby!
November 27th, 2007 at 7:37 am
my auto-didactic secondary school education…
Carmon, does this mean that you did not attend (public) high school?
November 27th, 2007 at 8:05 am
Dana, I shoulda stuck an “and” in-between those words
.
With many words mistakes are not absent…
November 27th, 2007 at 8:19 am
83.3%…and I missed one I shouldn’t have, especially since I was on the Vision Forum tour of Jamestown a couple of years ago! Both my dw and I scored 20 percentage points higher than the Ivy Leagues! Why? I attribute it to homeschooling our children and to my own reading. It certainly wasn’t any of the formal education I’ve had!!!
Charley
HomeDiscipling Dad Blog
November 27th, 2007 at 8:23 am
83.3%
B.A. Humanities, Oklahoma State University
M.B.A., University of San Diego
I think that I learned most of this information by 9th grade in my rural public school. I have retained what I have by virtue of homeschooling my children, reading the Wall Street Journal, and listening to talk radio.
I continue my education by sitting at Carmon’s feet.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:32 am
78.33% I was homeschooled for high school. Then in college I went to a public state university and got a liberal arts degree. But most of what I answered for this test was from my high school correspondence curriculum, or my own independent learning after college. Some of them I got through the process of elimination. And I personally feel that my knowledge of American history is fair at best, and my knowledge of world history/geography is quite poor. I didn’t apply myself to that sort of stuff very much in high school, or I could have learned a lot more.
November 27th, 2007 at 9:43 am
75%. I have some college (never finished b/c we started our family). I did guess a good bit but it was a good bit of educated guessing. I didn’t learn much of this in school (or college, for that matter, and I was a history major).
November 27th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I got a 60%. I went to public schools through 10th grade, but actually only completed 9th grade. And no my formal education did not help me one bit. Everything I answered correctly was learned from home and a great bit of it in the last year from studying about Jamestown and such.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
83.3%
Graduated Little Rock Central High School, attended University of Central Arkansas for three semesters.
From the ones I missed I’d say I need to study the 50s and 60s, and economics.
November 27th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
86.7%
High school drop out before salvation, BSME Idaho after salvation, and ever working on my MDIV.
But keep in mind, the score one gets is no reflection on character or ability. HSLDA research shows parents successfully teach their children regardless of education.
Thanks for the quiz Carmon!
November 27th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Fun one! I got 88.3% and learned that I seriously do not understand Keynesian economics or the bizarre inner workings of the Federal Reserve–LOL! I also took umbrage at one of my missed questions: “National defense is considered a public good because…” and I chose “a majority of citizens value it.” The “right” answer was “a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it.” Beg pardon? And all those tax dollars yanked from our paychecks DON’T pay for defense? I guess it’s a quibble; we don’t directly pay (as in writing a check to the US Dept. of Defense), but I’d still take issue with that answer! Oh, well…
I was homeschooled fifth grade through high school, then attended a Christian liberal arts college (emphasis on “liberal!”), graduating with a BA in English. I definitely do not credit the college degree with any success on this quiz. My late father passionately loved history and taught all of us children history and American government in high school and gave us a real drive to read, read, read. That and homeschooling my voracious readers now have kept me on my toes!
Thanks for the fun, Carmon!
November 27th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
76.67%
And as you know, I am a homeschool high school graduate.
November 27th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
I’m enjoying reading your answers, everyone. I think the unscientific conclusion is that Buried Treasure readers are above average
.
That is a very good point, James, that one does not have to be a superbrain and good test taker to educate her own children. I would have scored much lower on this test at the beginning of my home educating venture…I have learned a lot along the way and hopefully will continue to do so forever!
Jennie, you and I probably missed the same ones, and I answered the one about national defense the same way you did. I think it would be better if more people knew about Austrian economics than Keynesian economics.
November 28th, 2007 at 2:22 am
Me three, on the national defense question.
November 28th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Likewise on the National Defense question. I missed two others that I really should have gotten, but I am just not as smart as y’all.=)
— 78.33%
I have no degree, but did put in two years of college, most of it at a small private liberal arts school that was only average- no renowned reputation for academics. That was 1980-82.
November 28th, 2007 at 11:18 am
71.67% I’m a public high school graduate from almost 20 years ago with a smattering of college courses under my belt.
I missed a lot of economics questions.
November 28th, 2007 at 11:45 am
I took this quiz a few weeks ago and scored 87.?% I got almost all the history questions correct, but did most of my missing in the economics section. I have a BA in biology. I know almost all my history from historical fiction growing up and homeschooling my six kids for 20 years.
November 28th, 2007 at 11:53 am
95%, formally educated through PhD. I think the formal education did help. As a pleasant side effect, the quiz brought back memories of excellent lectures and the late-night discussions those lectures provoked.
November 28th, 2007 at 11:53 am
I missed the same ones Jennie Chancey missed.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
85% Several that I missed I was able to narrow down to two choices. As for education-credit wise I am a college senior working on a BSE in Biology who has been on sabatical for ten years. Some I remembered from my own school days but most from homeschooling my children.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I found you and this quiz through the Common Room. I didn’t do as well as the rest of those commenting so far.
I got 41 out of 60 correctly — 68.33 %. I have a BA in English literature (1976). I think I’d have done worse except for the reading and studying done by my son who passes on lots of info to his mom! (He was homeschooled through high school and is an architecture major with a minor in history.)
November 28th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Did this last night and forgot to write down the score but it was something around 63%.
Born and raised in the UK so most US stuff has been picked up since I moved here in 1967.
I wonder how I’d have done on a British equivalent? I remember various trivial details from my English Constitution class, including that the Speaker of the House can order an unruly Member of Parliament confined in the tower of Big Ben (which is the name of the bell, not the clock).
November 28th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
I got 70% and am hanging my head at that score as I read everyone else’s scores. I have 3 years of college (1978-81) but no degree. My son, who is 13 and has been homeschooled for all his life, scored 73.33%. The economic questions really did both of us in so that looks like a field we need to be doing some reading and studying in the future.
November 28th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
96.6% I have a BA in political science and a MA in history from a small state university in Kansas. The formal education was probably a big help, but I also read a fair amount so who knows.
November 28th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
91.7%
MS in Chemistry, but most of what I learned, I either learned from my parents, or from homeschooling.
November 28th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
75%–I am actually surprised I did that well. I graduated from public school, have my undergrad in nursing and grad degree in Public Health from a large public university (The Ohio State University). I would say most of what I remembered was from formal education, and a little picked up from reading, discussions, etc. Hmm . . . very interesting. Oh, and I also agree with others about the National Defense answer!
November 28th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
I’ll give you transparency.
55.0%
: (
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) graduate. I could use that as an excuse except that I believe you get out of something what you put into it. I would have invested more but my head and heart were preoccupied by home issues during my school years and I had a very hard time concentrating.
I had big dreams of overcoming those odds and going to Pepperdine. (God had other, better plans.)
I haven’t had much chance to crack the books and catch up in recent years (no matter what some say about making time for what’s important to you) because I’ve been bearing and training little ones.
One of these days I hope to get some schmarts. : )
In all brutal candor, most of my answers were guesses based on the wording of the questions and answer selections, not so much confident knowledge. My score would have been even less had it not been for our family’s involvement in Vision Forum’s Jamestown 400 Treasure Hunt and all the things we learned by way of VF’s Jamestown Quadricentennial Celebration. (Thank you sincerely, Mr. Phillips.)
Thank you, also, to Mr. McDonald for his gracious and reassuring comment.
November 28th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
86.67%
Might have got higher if I hadn’t foolishly second guessed myself on a couple of those questions.
I have an MA degree in Literature
I’d say I learned many of the answers in my high school (public school, especially the AP classes) and undergraduate classes (The University of Dallas, small private school). Only a few answers were from my own self-education because I don’t tend to read the kind of books that would help on this kind of test. Guess that will change in a few years when the home schooling gets started.
I got here via The Common Room, by the way. Thanks for sharing the quiz.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
I got 7o%.
I have a BS from the University of NE. Most of what I truly knew on the quiz I learned recently (as in the past two years) and I’m a 41 yo momma. This is my third year homeschooling and my oldest just turned 10.
November 28th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
91.7%.I went to the University of Washington for 2 years and then went to a nursing school for 2 years and became an RN. I graduated high school with honors, did well at U of W, and had a 4.0 in nursing school but my formal schooling definitely did not help me with this test. I learned along with my children as I homeschooled them.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:04 am
Ruthanne, you rock.
I was SO NOT going to post my humble score (which was the same as yours, Ruthanne), but you gave me the courage. I honestly do not believe that I received a good education in the public schools (the 2 years in a private Christian school were unbelievably WORSE, if you can imagine that). If one graduates with a 3.9 GPA, yet cannot even pass a civics test like this one, one cannot believe that the education received was terribly effective.
I am so grateful for the mercy of God that my children can learn apart from a “system”. And grateful that my own education has less bearing on my children’s ability to learn than their own desire TO learn.
I would be curious to see how public educators themselves would score on this. Anyone out there???
November 29th, 2007 at 2:40 am
Allow me to recommend a book to boost our correct answers in economics… Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson
http://www.amazon.com/Economics-One-Lesson-Shortest-Understand/dp/0517548232/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196332703&sr=1-1
It could be our next read-along, Carmon
November 29th, 2007 at 5:16 am
65%
And I’m a Canadian. I had one year of Bible school after high school but I would say that most of the questions I got right because of homeschooling and/or reading I do on my own.
I did find it very interesting and hope that I can teach my kids at least some of this.
November 29th, 2007 at 7:44 am
87%
B.S. University of Missouri
My college studies in business helped greatly with the economics part of the quiz. The history and civics part came from homeschooling my two dc and preparing to teach a homeschool co-op course in American Government next semester.
I think I’ll have my students take this quiz at the end of the semester.
November 29th, 2007 at 8:07 am
I got 75%. Graduated from Catholic high school 34 years ago. Took government, but not economics. I think I did pretty well, as I didn’t like social studies much at all!
November 29th, 2007 at 9:17 am
75.00%
I was home educated and have a graduate degree in translation. History was one subject we had trouble finding good solutions for, growing up.
November 29th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
80%. I am a product of the Louisiana public schools, and in my adult life, I have made considerable use of self-education, public libraries, and public broadcasting to learn or re-learn some of this stuff. Though not as well as I’d like, apparently.
(My MIT degree wasn’t much help, since I used my time there to learn math, science, and how to think like an engineer. Liberal arts it was not. I preferred my college years to be spent in productive pursuits, and I don’t regret it one bit.)
It helps that my husband is a prolific reader of history and philosophy texts. I suspect I learn more than I think by talking with him, come to think of it…
November 29th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Oh, and to Jennie Chancey, about defense being a public good: I think the question was poorly worded (I almost put in the same wrong answer you did), but they’re technically correct. Someone who doesn’t pay taxes at all *would* benefit from a strong defense program. Consider children, or indigent people, or illegal immigrants. The defense that we taxpayers purchase benefits not just us taxpayers, but these others as well.
The fact that most of us *do* pay for defense kind of muddles the question.
November 30th, 2007 at 10:17 am
I scored a 78.33 percent, in spite of my working class public education that prepared students more for working at the local GM plant (and other factories) or for joining the military. During my 23+ years in the Marine Corps (with 20 years as a commissioned officer) I earned a BS in Business Administration, and two Masters in Management (one from a top ranked university). The university educations helped, but life experience was definitely a contributor to my score. The 60 questions represent a rather narrow selection of knowledge, so don’t let one’s score sway you towards judging ones competence for success in homeschooling or life in general. Adding or removing one or two quesitions on any one topic could greatly change one’s score.
November 30th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
80%
I have an A.A. in theology from a Texas Bible school. I knew the history questions because of growing up in Virginia and enjoying American history. On the economics section of the test I did poorly, time to read some books on economics along with my home-school children.
November 30th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
91.7% – I agree with Mrs. Chauncey on #53.
Public schools – but my high school years were in a top-notch high school – basically a classical education except I learned German instead of Latin.
BS Chemical Engineering. I CLEPed or APed out of every non-engineering course I could.
Teaching my children has reminded me of many things I’d learned just for the test. Much of my economic/political knowledge is from their speech and debate activities, as well as their participation in Fed Challenge – a defunct competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve. Not to mention our family’s involvement in politics.
November 30th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
What does your family do in politics, Dawn?
Too bad the Federal Reserve isn’t defunct, too
.
December 1st, 2007 at 5:47 pm
91.7%, which shocked me, since I’m pretty geeky.
I have a B.S. in Nutritional Science from the University of Wisconsin, an M.A. in Public Policy and Management (with an Information Systems concentration) from The Ohio State University, and am four courses away from a 2nd B.S. in Computer Science from Franklin University, a commuter and online university in Columbus, OH. I imagine some of my M.A. courses might have helped (especially Econ), but I really only used the Info Systems amd data analysis parts of the degree in real life. I would have done much worse on the American government section if I weren’t married to a Political Science professor.
December 3rd, 2007 at 4:13 am
Wondering how we would fair on an etiquette quiz?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker89.html
December 4th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
86.67%, B.A. in Psychology from Stanford. I did not have to take a single history or poli sci class in college so everything I got right I either remembered from my AP U.S. History class in high school or must’ve read on my own.
January 21st, 2008 at 8:37 pm
[...] she’s going away for a time, I wanted to give her a going away present. Remember the test we all took which so many college students failed? The difficulty of the economics section was what [...]