Civics Test | KnoxViews

Submitted by WhitesCreek on Fri, 2008/11/21 - 11:27am

It's snowing right? We can't possibly go outside, so...

I have any number of quarrels with this test but it's fun anyway. Some questions are based on arguable premises and some are history rather than civics.

(My score was 96)

http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx

WhitesCreek's blog

vote

Did you miss question 29,

Submitted by lovable liberal on Fri, 2008/11/21 - 11:46am.

Did you miss question 29, too?

Liberty and justice for all.

My home

Cool. 90.91 for me. I missed

Submitted by R. Neal on Fri, 2008/11/21 - 12:00pm.

Cool.

90.91 for me.

I missed three, one because of not being familiar with the Puritan creed, one on tricky wording, and one on a failure of logic.

I agree it's more of a history test. But I guess we see the application of civics in history.

I would be curious as to how some of our esteemed East TN elected officials would score, without googling.

me too Randy

Submitted by talidapali on Sun, 2008/11/23 - 7:10pm.

You answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 %

_________________________________________________
"You can't fix stupid..." ~ Ron White"
"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

I got 93.94%, missing

Submitted by MDB on Fri, 2008/11/21 - 12:34pm.

I got 93.94%, missing numbers 13 and 33. I found 33 to be confusingly worded, and 13... well, most of my knowledge of philosophers comes from Monty Python.

oooooo, Immanuel Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable...

"I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." -- Will Rogers

Actually...

Submitted by WhitesCreek on Fri, 2008/11/21 - 12:36pm.

I had a stupid attack on the source of the quote. I thought there was a precurser. If I had checked my answers and thought about it...

Interesting to look at the statistics. Educators score an average of 55%.

Educators score an average

Submitted by MDB on Fri, 2008/11/21 - 12:44pm.

Educators score an average of 55%.

That's one of those weaselly statistics, I suspect.

"Educators" is a broad term -- they could include math teachers, business teachers, kindergarten teachers, gym teachers... all sorts of teachers who really can't be expected to know more about civics than any other person with a college education.

Now, the fact that its only 55% is still dismaying, but I don't think that's necessarily a statement as to quality of teachers relative to the rest of America, considering over 70% of people got below 60%. In other words, the teachers as a whole do about as well as the rest of us.

Now, if it was civics and history teachers getting 55% on average, that would be alarming.

"I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." -- Will Rogers

Civics and history

Submitted by WhitesCreek on Fri, 2008/11/21 - 3:08pm.

These courses come across as drudgery and that's too bad.

The problem was that the classes I had were brain deadeningly boring, until I got to college. If I hadn't run into a brilliantly funny, and seriously alcoholic, prof who brought it all to life, who knows how historically ignorant I would still be.

My degree is in Electrical Engineering. I am a recovering engineer. For some reason I have always liked reading Jefferson's writings. As a spin off, I got hooked on Aaron Burr, who I was taught in school was evil. Turns out he was merely a scoundrel.

It says "college educators"

Submitted by KC on Sun, 2008/11/23 - 7:30pm.

"Educators" is a broad term -- they could include math teachers, business teachers, kindergarten teachers, gym teachers... all sorts of teachers who really can't be expected to know more about civics than any other person with a college education.

I hate to be a nitpicking former teacher, but I think you misquoted the information. It said:

The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%.

So, we're talking about college professors, of one sort or another, or TAs. Right? To me "college educators" implies people who either have advanced degrees or are working on advanced degrees.Not just anybody with a "college education."

Thomas Jefferson's Letters

Submitted by Opinari on Fri, 2008/11/21 - 1:55pm.

The one question I missed was the one citing the quote regarding the "wall of separation" between church and state. I guess I need to go and read Jefferson's letters. Sigh.

I got a 96.97% . I missed

Submitted by KC on Fri, 2008/11/21 - 3:18pm.

I got a 96.97% . I missed the last one about the tax=spending.

I'm always a little hesitant to put much emphasis on these kind of tests, but this one seems to be one of the best I've taken in a while.

A lot of these tests put a premium on names and dates while ignoring how much people understand the process of something, like legislating, or how historical events unfold and develop.

Is it more important to know the dates of battles in the Civil War, or to know the attitudes and beliefs of the populations that were involved?
I would argue the latter.

I missed two and both of

Submitted by Rachel on Sat, 2008/11/22 - 1:33am.

I missed two and both of them because I fell into my usual multi-choice test frame of mind of trying too hard to figure out miniscule shadings of meaning.

Well all this just goes to

Submitted by WhitesCreek on Sat, 2008/11/22 - 9:24am.

Well all this just goes to show that KnoxViews posters are way smarter than the average "educator" (or some of us fib...I'm sure it's the smarter thing).

YOu people are s-m-r-t

Submitted by Factchecker on Sat, 2008/11/22 - 10:02am.

Missed four, which makes for an 87.9. Choices for 27 and 29 were a little ambiguous, I thought. Got the Jefferson letters on a WAG.

My score (and about Roger Williams)

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Sun, 2008/11/23 - 1:08am.

Put me down for a 93.94. I also missed #29, and #20, which I read and answered too hurriedly.

About the Jefferson letters: The one in question was Jefferson's response to Roger Willaims.

While the Puritan elders in Massachusetts were arbitrarily awarding and denying voting rights to the citizenry there, and branding "infidels" with hot irons, Roger Williams was simultaneously welcoming all creeds, including Catholics and Jews, into Rhode Island. In that sense, Williams was a pretty "progressive" minister.

His letter to Jefferson, though, nevertheless sought Jefferson's assurances that government would not interfere in the matters of the Church.

Jefferson's written response was probably more than Williams requested. Jefferson answered that no, government would not interfere in the matters of the Church, and furthermore, the Church would not interfere in government, either--and he coined therein this phrase about the "wall of separation between Church and State."

File it away. Sooner or later, some blustery Southern Baptist preacherman will stand at the end of your nose, insisting that the Constitution makes no reference to any "separation of Church and State."

This is true, but you already knew what was meant by the Establishment Clause, and now you know about the exchange between one of the Constitution's two primary framers and Williams. You have only to pluck a couple of pithy quotes from Engel v. Vitale, then, to satisfactorily stuff a sock in him.

96.7%

Submitted by reform4 on Sun, 2008/11/23 - 1:26am.

I missed the philosophers question. I misread the question and thought it said "inaccessible."

Did anyone look at the "Additional Finding?"

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Sun, 2008/11/23 - 7:40pm.

And in answer to Randy's earlier question, about how some of our "esteemed East TN elected officials" might score, did anyone happen to click on that "Additional Finding" tab (left of screen)?

Surveyors weren't looking for it, but they unexpectedly discovered that elected officials did worse than the general public! Take a look:

http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/2008/additional_finding.html

Mark Harmon

Not quite

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Sun, 2008/11/23 - 11:33pm.

But Mark, yours is an *A*ATS (Above Average Twit Score), I believe?

Because it is also an A*U*TS (Average University Twit Score), right?

Or more likely an *A*A*U*TS (Above Average University Twit Score)?

Not to be expected across the board, I would think.

:-)

Don't know how...

Submitted by RayCapps on Mon, 2008/11/24 - 12:48pm.

but I aced it. The question about tax revenues = government expenditures seemed a little oddly worded to me. I had to think about what they were trying to say for a while.