75% of Oklahoma HS students can't name our first President

And only fourteen percent can say who wrote the Declaration of Independence.

The quote alluded to at the end of the article is fitting: "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson

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

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Can he name them?

I only missed one, and it's more because I just drew a total blank, because it's embarrassing.

Pretty sad, isn't it? But, they sure know who Paris Hilton is.

I don't understand how studies like this keep coming out. Honestly, how do these people attend school every day for 10 years and not learn how to read, or know who the first president was? I know there are some crappy, underfunded schools out there, but 1 in 4 in the state of Oklahoma? Seriously? Why are these students passed onto the next grade if they don't know such basic concepts? It's not like it was a trick question and the answer was actually John Hanson- most of those questions were embarrassingly straight forward.

When I was in high school, it was released that X% of high school students couldn't find their own state on a map of the US. My school made everyone take time from their social studies class to take a quiz labeling the map of the US. I took it in my AP History class, so I got to skip it in AP Government. You know, because I could have checked the answers since I'd already seen the test.

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That's ok ..... I'll bet 75% of the country couldn't find Oklahoma on a map. (most can sing the song, however!)

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Right! It seems that the history of the United Kingdom has been going for so long that it all gets a bit murky after a while, and things tended to happen of their own accord rather than being purposefully put into action.

The first King of England was Offa of Mercia, back in the 700s, but once he died, no one seemed to care about being King of England, preferring to stick with their own individual kingdoms. The English monarchy didn't pick up again until the early 800s, with Egbert, King of Wessex, being in charge of most of the country. From there, it's been a continuous line (although not a strictly biological one, thanks to various violent uprisings) of monarchy ever since, although it wasn't until Alfred the Great that anyone took it upon themselves to say "hey, I'm king of the WHOLE country!". England, Ireland, and Scotland took care of themselves and had their own monarchies right up until 1707 (and beyond, in the case of Ireland), when the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed (initially comprising England and Scotland; Ireland joined in 1801, making it the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, until 1922, when most of Ireland dropped away, leaving the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, name amended as of 1927). And so the very first British monarch was the relatively recent Queen Anne. I love our history, it's a bit mad. :)

As for Prime Ministers, we never officially created the office, so we never officially had a First Prime Minister, but people traditionally list Sir Robert Walpole (in office from 1721 to 1742) as the first, simply because we've got to start somewhere, and that's around the time modern politics started taking shape. Plus he did essentially perform the role of Prime Minister as we know it, even if they didn't know that's what he was yet. XD

Y'know, I'm kinda jealous of American history. It all seems so nicely compact and organised, somehow. (I also now know where Oklahoma is and what the state capital is. Go me!)

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Updated On: 9/19/09 at 05:57 AM

I don't know about the testing protocol, but I know in Florida (where I just came from) and New York (where I am know), Reading, Writing and Math (and every few years, Science) were pretty much the only thing taught in schools due to high stakes testing in the state (and NCLB).

I've always taught at charter schools which have had extended school days and thus the luxury to teach Social Studies/History/Geography, but I know many of the schools in the districts my schools were located in didn't even touch Social Studies since it wasn't on the state test.

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Most state tests leave off social studies (and a lot of other topics), but the standardized tests some schools do at the end of the year (not related to NCLB) do include them. This is just one of the many stupid things about NCLB, which has actually destroyed education in America. If I ever have to teach it will not be in a public school that is too afraid to actually educate their students but in a private or charter school where education is the most important thing (and teaching to the test isn't because the subject matter was covered years before).

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Who's Al Gore?

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Chester Alan Arthur.

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"I was able to list all the presidents (in order, thank you very much!)"

Me too, I learned it in music class in elementary school. I somehow always forget Truman.
And, I know the states in alphebetical order from the same music class.

(Of course, when someone asks me who the 30th presient was, I have to sing the song)

They have a US Map test online to see how many states you can name; I got 43 of them correct.

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Me too, I learned it in music class in elementary school. I somehow always forget Truman.

Cool! So do you know who comes after Beyonce?

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