What Do Americans Know About America?
68I know that's our flag....
Let me think...
A good friend of mine from Panama just passed her American Citizenship test. After popping the champagne and toasting to our new American friend, I asked her about some of the questions on the test; I am a teacher after all. Being a native born American, I was certain I would know all the answers as was everyone else at the dinner table. But, interestingly, many new citizens know more about the USA than we home-cooked Americans do!
I performed a little experiment in my classroom. I asked my students, 19 of whom were born in the USA, if they would take a brief quiz (ungraded of course) for my own personal research. As I said, there are 19 USA citizens in my class; there are 3 non-citizens: 1 young woman from Spain, 1 young woman from Nigeria, and 1 young man from China. These are the most interesting results of my quiz
The first question was confusing for citizens and non-citizens alike:
What is the supreme law of the land?
The answer is the Constitution, but I believe the question was unclear and I had to rephrase it. Once I clarified it, everyone wrote the correct answer (spelling was not a factor).
What does the Constitution do?
Every student answered this correctly (within reason): gives people right, shows what the government can and can’t do, defines government powers.
What is an amendment?
Everyone knew this because we are working on a Bill of Rights project now.
How many amendments does the Constitution have?
Only the young woman from Nigeria knew this: 27.
What is the economic system in the United States?
Very interesting answers: The 3 non-citizens knew this; 11 Americans knew this: capitalism. From the other 8 Americans, I got the following answers –
Cash and carry, credit cards, big bank economy, buyer beware, fascism, paper, and 2 people said gold-backed which I accepted as reasonable.
Name 2 branches or part of the government.
About half the class seemed confused by the word, ‘branches.’ Once I explained that term, everyone could name 2: congressional, legislative, executive, except one young woman from here in NJ.
What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful?
Only the Nigerian student knew the term, checks and balances. The rest of the class knew the concept (except 1 young man said assassination).
Who makes federal laws?
Talk about legislating from the bench… 14 students answered, the Supreme Court. This is wrong; Congress makes federal laws. 5 students knew the correct answer including the young man from China and the young woman from Spain. 1 student wrote, the states, 2 students left the answer blank.
How many U.S. Senators are there?
There are 100 Senators, 2 per state. 8 students believed that the numbers depends on the population of each state; this is true of Congress, not the Senate. 14 students were correct including the three foreign students
What is the name of the President now?
Everyone knew this answer.
If the President can no longer serve, who becomes President?
Everyone knew this answer.
If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President?
Interestingly, only the 3 foreign students knew this answer: Speaker of the House.
What are two Cabinet positions?
Everyone in the class was able to name at least 2 of the following: Secretary of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, HUD, Interior, Transportation, Treasury, Veterans' Affairs, Labor, Attorney General and Secretary of State.
How many justices are on the Supreme Court?
This question saw answers from 3 to 100. All 3 of the foreign students knew the correct answer: 9. Only two American students knew this.
Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the states. What is one power of the states?
Only one student was unable to name one of the following: education, policing, fire safety, drivers licensing and land use. That student is from Florida.
Who is the Governor of your state?
We live in NJ, and unfortunately everyone knew the answer to this question.
This is only a partial list of the questions the students answered, and I only administered this test to one of my classes. I was actually pretty proud of the students. I was even prouder during the discussion after the test because there was a lot of energy in the room and the students kept saying, “Oh, I should know that!”
What do you think?
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I don't know as much as I should about Canada, but I do know that all my friends from Canada are pretty open minded and accepting of other people... many americans are not so accepting.
I lived in the states for about six years and to tell you the truth I didn't find much difference between Americans and Canadians in general.
As an American, that's good to hear.
8-)
I lived in a southern area of the US and I did find some pretty big differences between here and there.
Hey ThatGrrl, I agree! Need I say more?
Whoo-Whoo! Go Shea! I think this should be given annually to your classroom, just to stir things up, no grades, each kid sees what the others do and don't know about their government. Maybe you might have to change some of the questions if the students get wind of it and share. But, maybe that would be a good thing? Loved this. And, BTW, what did this mean? "We live in NJ, and unfortunately everyone knew the answer to this question." Best, Debby
Hi Debby, thanks for reading. Re: the governor... our governor is anti-teacher and anti-education. that's why knowing him creates problems for teachers and students. thanks again 8-)
Now I understand. I had this feeling his name should not be mentioned under the circumstances. Not an advocate for learning and the children. Boo-hoo.
Very interesting experiment and very interesting results. It does not surprise me that the foreign students did well.
Do you go to conferences to present papers? Or ever publish papers in a local or regional journal? It just seems tio me like you have a fabulous topic sitting right in front of you.
Pick another class and administer the test to them at the beginning of the year or semester. Take lots of notes about the discussion afterward. Put all that away in a folder. Then administer the test agin at the end of the semester.
Do a little research to see what else is out there on the topic and then write up your results appropriately footnoted. I can't imagine you couldn't place your paper in a journal (20-25pp double spaced) or present it at a conference (usually 10-12 pp double spaced). That is if you would find that sort of thing interesting or useful. :)
Great topic - interesting responses. Like phdast7, I too am not surprised foreign students knew more details than natives. Geography is where other nationalities really put us to shame. Was part of the test state capitals?
I think this was a very interesting survey that you took. Thank you for sharing the results with us. Many times foreigner's know more about out country than we do. Foreign countries reallys study the U.S. and our government as we are the best working democracy around. Not perfect, but the best working one at the moment.
We complain about the U.S. sometimes and our economic policies, but we are the most fortunate people and country in the world.
PS: I lived in NJ when I ws a child.
phdast, that's for you comments. to be honest, i've tried to publish articles and have never had success. either my research isn't good enough or i just don't know the right people. but that's for the encouragement.
kathleen, thanks. there was nothing on state capitals in general, but specific-state related questions.
suzette, i agree. i love the USA. i have relatives in europe, and i believe we are the luckiest people in the world. my only complaint is that teachers don't get the support they need to really teach and many classrooms have too many kids.
Hi shea duane, as usual, you've published another interesting and insightful article.
Voted up on your well written hub
John
Great hub. It's alarming how little people know about the important things of their own country. Bravo.
Hi John. Thanks so much. I appreciate your opinion.
Skinsman, I agree. I actually think it's fun to learn new things about this or any country.
I think this was a very interesting and enlightening hub. Sounds like this was one test that your class enjoyed taking and that it was a great starting point for speaking about this important topic.
Voted up, useful and interesting.
Just Ask Susan Level 8 Commenter 4 months ago
Really interesting hub. Here in Canada we study American History, American geography and even touch on American politics. But yet in the states I find that so many Americans know little about Canada.