Last night I was thinking about whether people should pass a basic civics test before they receive a voter registration card. So I checked the internet to see if I could find some discussion on it. When one political blogger suggested the idea one response he received was simply, "Are you trying to scare democrats to death?"
An experiment was performed, Newsweek gave 1,000 Americans the U.S. citizenship test
to see if they could pass it if they had to. 38% failed. Questions like
why we fought the Cold War stumped 73%. Defining the Bill of Rights
tripped up 44%. 29% couldn't name our current vice president. And 6%
weren't sure when we celebrate Independence Day.
My favorite response was if potential voters are required to pass a test then political candidates should be required to pass one before they are allowed to run for office. (Watch out Sarah Palin)
I'm curious......what are your thoughts? Maybe we need to put more emphasis on government and civics in the high school curriculum. That is where future voters are residing in fact many get that right before they ever graduate. I think this is where we have the opportunity to create better informed voters.
My New Garden
3 days ago
3 comments:
We definitely need more emphasis on civics and government in our schools. As for a test for voters? If we have to take one then politicians should too.
I would like to see politicians take a test for common sense.
Sadly, I believe that Americans have been so "dumbed down" in the past few decades that they can't recognize ignorance in their own representatives. I don't know what the answer is, but we'd better start paying attention to our system of education soon, or we'll never have intelligent candidates again.
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