Idiots Unite!

[BrenanMommy]

11-24-08

 

A report was just released in the USA Today that was showing that Americans don't know the answers to some of the fundamental aspects of what make up the United States of America. Things like the three branches of government and who actually has the power to declare war were questions asked in their survey. Apparently only about half of adult Americans can name the three, and 54% know that Congress actually has the power to declare war, not the president.

 

Richard Brake, head of the institution's American Civic Literacy Program that actually ran this study, said the following. "Without knowledge of your country's history, key texts and institutions, you don't have the frame of reference to judge the politics and policies of today."

 

I think this is incredibly condescending to the people that make up this country. And I will admit it, I am one of those people. Ken and I were listening to the radio when they mentioned the study and I didn't think anything of it until Ken scoffed at the idea that half the people in the US didn't know the three braches of government. I turned to him and said, "I don't know." He didn't believe me. I am a pretty smart person, I know a lot of different things, and I would say I am smarter than the average bear. How is it that something that he considers just something that is imbedded in our conscience when we were little would just always be there. He asked me to guess. I could come up with I think 2 of them. He was in shock. How was this possible? This led to an interesting topic of conversation. Was this knowledge crucial to every day living? Should people really in fact know this?

 

I would say the argument to have this information tacked up in plain sight on your brain's bulletin board at all times is pretty simple. When we were young, we learned things like this and these are the building blocks to what makes our country great. We wouldn't be where we were with things like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Our founding fathers are important to recognize and understand why they are great because we owe a debt of gratitude to them. Plus, it isn't like this is hard stuff to remember. We know things like the 16^th president and we know that he was tall. We know that stuffed bears were dubbed Teddy Bears because of another president. There is a wealth of information we were taught 20 to 25 years ago and we had it all locked away in our little brains. We wrote reports, we took tests, we knew this stuff forward and back. Why in the world would this data just fall out?

 

Here is where my point takes affect. I am pretty sure most working adults have busy lives. Many of us work, take care of our kids, take care of our homes, and when we have some extra time, we make sure to be entertained by various mediums. I know I have a lot on my plate in general. And my kids aren't even at the age where I am going to be caring them off to various practices and making sure that I need to bake cupcakes this week, but cookies next week.

 

I spend all day talking to various customers, all of whom call me and just assume I know all of their account information off the top of my head. As if that wasn't bad enough, I also am expected to know everyone else's customer information as well. I have deadlines and meetings. I have memos and emails. It is a busy day, and I know that my job isn't nearly as important as other people.

 

I have friends. I have family. I have outings with both and I have to keep track of when those things are. I have to make sure that Ken doesn't have work on a day we are going to Grammie's, and I need to see if we can do a birthday party a week later so my aunt could attend. There are various responsibilities that I need to know, whether through the help of a calendar or just notes written on my hand, I keep this stuff in my head.

 

I also have the hobby that so many people have. Celebrities. We watch them on television. We watch them in the movies. They are on radio, the news, magazines. They are pretty much everywhere. Hell, they were even part of the election coverage. We know the names of Brangelina's kids, we know the release date of the next Harry Potter book. This is our livelihood, the escape from all the things we have to juggle each day. Yet we find ourselves juggling even more   things because we like to know sports stats or maybe the lyrics of our favorite new song.

 

Don't even get me started on things like video games, since these are another fantastic way to know a whole lot of useless things, unless of course you love the game. Certain games require you to know codes or the location of certain items. Some you just need to know the right sequence of how you click the buttons. All of this is information that swims in your head.

 

Perhaps 50 years ago, we didn't have all of these facts and figures floating through our brains. Our culture wasn't made up with so much information that they needed to put it all up on a digital reality that we now can not live without. The internet has not only given us information on things we need, it has given us information on things we never in a million years would need. I know I have been caught doing the Wiki chain. You know the one where you go to look up something on Wikipedia, then you notice some link on that site to another Wikipedia entry so you go there. You do this over and over until you somehow managed to get from World War II to Energy Drinks. My gate teacher used to call this bird walking. It was when you started talking about one thing and you ended up on another random topic after a bunch of tangents. The net is one giant tangent, and we are attached to it, whether we like it or not.

 

All this being said, even though we may not know the answers to seemingly simple and well known questions like the three branches of government, I am pretty sure we can not only look it up in a matter of a few seconds, we will end up knowing more about them then we ever would have known in our 3^rd grade class. Also, with a few bird walking clicks, we would end up finding out other facts about our government. Or perhaps even the government of Germany? Or Thailand? All of this is on our computers. A good chunk of people even have it on their phones, so they don't even need to wait until they sit down at home. They could look it all up right then and there. Isn't this why we have technology? So that we can actually not just learn more, but we now have an ability to not have to store it all in our heads at once because we have an amazing storage system at our fingertips? If we start expecting people to remember every single little piece of data that comes into their life, we are probably looking at a whole lot of anti anxiety medication being prescribed.

 

The other part of his statement was that without this basic knowledge, we don't have the right frame of reference to judge politics and policies. How is this true? Many laws were the result of people having a feeling. People understand their basic rights. They know what they believe in and they know what upsets them. Based on that alone, they have every right to say they don't like a presidential candidate. If the candidate says they believe in abortion, and you don't, it is pretty safe to say you have every right and a perfectly reasonable frame of reference to judge said candidate on this issue. We as people in this country, have the ability to mouth off about anything we want to. Look at the blogs out there, people. Look at all the dribble I spew out on a daily basis. I am able to have these opinions. I also can like Obama, do research on him, see what he is all about, vote for him and feel happy about this, without knowing the three branches of government.

 

I think that I would not have admitted my ignorance so openly before. I have had very smart friends my whole life. They are all incredibly bright and witty and have a wealth of information and knowledge that spew out of them constantly. I have actually always felt pretty inferior. Although I may never be as wise as some of them, I am ok with this. No, I can't have an in depth conversation on the levels they are at, but I feel comfortable knowing that I do have a lot of knowledge that swims around in my brain. I also know that I keep a lot of balls in the air in my life, and I do a really good job at it. I think that my actions speak louder than my lack of USA history facts.

 

My point, which may have been lost in my rant, is that just because someone doesn't know the things they learned in the 4^th grade, doesn't mean they don't know a boatload of other things that are far more crucial in day to day life. There are some incredibly intelligent individuals out there that are patriotic and involved in elections and understand a great deal of the details. No, they can't name all the state capitals and they can't recite the Declaration of Independence, but they do know what is right and wrong, and they have the ability to vote on it.

 

Knowing history is important. Obviously without knowing some things, you could repeat the past mistakes made. Knowing ongoing operations and procedures are good to have on hand, but as long as you know how to get that information you are better off than you were 50 years ago. And this ability I think actually makes us smarter than we were 50 years ago, which to me says progress.