Facing the Truth About the American Voter

by David Chavern

I just read a fascinating – and scary – book with the provocative title of  "Just How Stupid are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter." The author is George Mason University historian Rick Shenkman.  As you might guess, the premise of the book is that huge numbers of American voters lack even the most basic knowledge about government and critical policy issues.  It really shoots straight at the popular premise that the aggregate judgment of the American people, as expressed at election time, is thoughtful and well-considered.

• half of us can name 4 characters from "The Simpsons," but less than a quarter can name more than one of the guaranteed rights in the First Amendment
• only 2 out of 5 voters can name all three branches of the federal government 
• only 1 in 5 know that there are 100 federal senators
• only 1 in 7 can find Iraq on a map
• only one-fifth of Americans between ages 18-34 bother to keep up with current events.

Aside from generating obvious fears about our democracy, I think this book constitutes a direct smack on the public education establishment’s usual justification for not preparing students to be good workers in our economy.  The business community has been complaining for years that our K-12 education system doesn’t produce enough people who can competently, read, write, do basic math – and compete in a global economy.  The usual response from the education establishment has been "that’s not our job.  We are supposed to be preparing people to be responsible citizens in a participatory democracy – not getting people ready for work."

Ok – then, our public education systems are clearly even worse at creating citizens than they are workers.  We – as citizens, parents and taxpayers – need to clearly understand that our public education systems in this country are failing at essentially every critical task they have.  There is plenty of blame to go around, and I frankly think that more blame should be assigned to parents and students, but that doesn’t change the outcome.  If we keep going in the same direction with the same old educational policies, then future generations of Americans will be flatly unprepared to address the political and economic challenges this country will face.

Comments

[ChamberPost]

“Let’s start with what the laws say regarding the purpose of a public education. By way of example, Sec. 4.11(b) of Title 22 of the Pennsylvania Code states:

Public education prepares students for adult life by attending to their intellectual and developmental needs and challenging them to achieve at their highest level possible. In conjunction with families and other community institutions, public education prepares students to become self-directed, life-long learners and responsible, involved citizens.

Lovely sentiment, but notice that “work” is not mentioned in any form. How many K-12 educators would describe their mission as preparing students to have a successful economic life? Very few, I think.

As to NCLB and civics, I will leave that to others to debate. However, I think you have to start with basics. When large percentages of teenagers lack the most basic reading, writing and math skills, then it seems ridiculous to talk making sure that they are engaged citizens.”

- David Chavern

[Quyen Arana]

You write, "The usual response from the education establishment has been 'that’s not our job. We are supposed to be preparing people to be responsible citizens in a participatory democracy – not getting people ready for work.'"

Really!? Is that your quote, or is that from the book? I would disagree and venture to say I am not alone. Since No Child Left Behind, the focus has been on getting kids to reach core competencies as defined by the law. Unfortunately, Government (aka "Social Studies") is not one of them.

"The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) is increasingly alarmed by the erosion of the importance of social studies in the United States. This erosion, in large part, is a consequence of the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB)." (http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/nclbera)

Do a google search on NCLB and "Social Studies". You'll find numerous calls to action about the decline in civic preparedness due to the demands of NCLB.

If you are concerned about democratic citizens, then you need to consider NCLB reform.