Makes you wonder…

According to this article the US citizen test gets harder starting in October. They include a sample test of 20 questions that are among the "harder" ones. Granted, the REAL test isn't multiple choice, but almost all of these I would *hope* that the average American could answer, or at least come close. The sad truth is that most of us probably couldn't. I'll be honest, I took a guess on one (got it right) that I should have known… and now I do.

The one I got wrong, I should have known, and may have if I had spent time really thinking about it. I'm protesting that one because my American History classes rarely got that far. Isn't that sad? My 5th grade history was supposed to take me up to the Civil war, and we never got close. In 8th grade we as far as the Industrial Revolution I think, I don't remember ever discussing WWI. High school probably got up to the Korean War but she was cramming it in so fast that I don't really remember much. We studied up to the Civil War enough to actually retain, and maybe finished out the century but after that it was a BIG BLUR. And college? Ha! I graduate with a degree in Liberal Studies next semester with only 1 actual history class under my belt. I picked it myself from many different options. It was a survey of American history UP TO the Civil War (and I don't think we even got that far!).

It makes you worry about "the system." I think myself to be pretty knowledgeable about HOW the government is set up to run, but look at how one question points out huge holes in my education. Another one that made me think is the last one. Susan B. Anthony. I don't think I remember EVER discussing her in a class. It may be my faulty memory as far as school goes, but I know I learned about her from my grandmother. She really worked on me and my siblings to start collecting coins so she quite often gave us silver dollars or something like that for our birthdays. At the time, I think she was the only historical female to appear on a coin (or at least that I know of) so I was really interested.

If you're curious, my results are here.