Americans flunk constitutional quiz (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 13:57:45 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> To: fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu Subject: Americans flunk constitutional quiz WASHINGTON (AP) - Pop quiz: How many U.S. senators are there? One in two Americans do not know the answer is 100, according to a survey on the U.S. Constitution released Monday. And two in five don't know there are three branches of government, let alone what they are. Mayor Edward G. Rendell of Philadelphia, where the Constitution was signed 210 years ago this Wednesday, said the results were disappointing. "That shows an appalling lack of knowledge for a document that determines what we do," said Rendell, chairman of the National Constitution Center, created by Congress in 1988 to increase awareness of the document. "Every day, issues important and central to us as people and government are affected by the Constitution." [...] Ten basic questions about the Constitution: 1. When was the Constitution written? 2. Where was the Constitution written? 3. What are the first 10 amendments to the Constitution called? 4. Do you recall what the introduction of the Constitution is called? 5. How many branches of the federal government are there? 6. How many senators are there in the U.S. Congress? 7. How many years are there in a Senate term? 8. How many voting members are there in the House of Representatives? 9. How many years are there in a representative's term? 10. Who nominates the justices of the Supreme Court? Answers (and percentage of correct responses): 1. 1787 (19 percent); 2. Philadelphia (61 percent); 3. the Bill of Rights (66 percent); 4. the Preamble (55 percent); 5. three (58 percent); 6. 100 (48 percent); 7. six years (43 percent); 8. 435 (23 percent); 9. two years (45 percent); 10. the president (70 percent). Source: National Constitution Center.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Pop quiz: How many U.S. senators are there? One in two Americans do not know the answer is 100, according to a survey on the U.S. Constitution released Monday.
Well, that's pretty sad. Unfortunately very few of these questions had anything to do with the ideas behind the details? You can ask as many "how many congressional paiges fit on the head of a xxxahemxxx pin" questions, but how many can answer more important questions. In the spirit of test competition I humbly offer this competing quiz. 1. Who were the federalists and the anti-federalists? 2. What was the difference? 3. What are the reasons for each of rights enumerated by the Bill of Rights? 4. What are the rights of the government? Does it have any? 5. What is the difference between rights and powers? 6. What is more powerful, a sitting jury or the Supreme Court? 7. Is the second clause of the second amendment depedent or not? 8. What is the meaning of the ninth and tenth amendments? 9. What happenend to the constitution in 1938? 10. What is meant by the "welfare clause" of the constitution? Show supporting evidence by quoting at least one founding father. 11. Who said "This country was founded with a pretty radical constitution, with radical freedoms. When people abuse those freedoms you have to move to limit them."? 12. What was the main argument against a bill of rights? 13. What major document, which is signed yearly by most adult Americans is a direct violation of the fifth amendment? 14. What is meant by freedom of assembly? 15. What does the phrase "shall not be infringed" mean? 16. What is meant by "a militia" in the second amendment? 17. What is meant by "well-regulated" in the second amendment? 18. What is meant by "free state" in the second amendment? 19. Which federal agencies are not specified in the constitution? 20. And finally a real trivia question, kids. What kind of paper was the Declaration of Independence and Constitution printed on? Please feel free to add on any other questions before we set up the CypherPunks Constitutional Quiz Website. ;-) Regards, Jim Burnes Jim Burnes Engineer, Western Security, SSDS Inc jim.burnes@ssds.com ---- When the world is running down Make the best of what's still around - Sting
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In <Pine.GSO.3.95.970915142531.8586K-100000@well.com>, on 09/15/97 at 02:25 PM, Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> said:
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 13:57:45 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> To: fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu Subject: Americans flunk constitutional quiz
WASHINGTON (AP) - Pop quiz: How many U.S. senators are there? One in two Americans do not know the answer is 100, according to a survey on the U.S. Constitution released Monday. And two in five don't know there are three branches of government, let alone what they are. Mayor Edward G. Rendell of Philadelphia, where the Constitution was signed 210 years ago this Wednesday, said the results were disappointing. "That shows an appalling lack of knowledge for a document that determines what we do," said Rendell, chairman of the National Constitution Center, created by Congress in 1988 to increase awareness of the document. "Every day, issues important and central to us as people and government are affected by the Constitution."
This is quite understandable. There is very little teaching of the Constitution or of Government in public schools. Many years ago when I was in HS Civics entailed a 1 semester course 1/2hr a day in your senior year. While American history may still be taught in the public schools it is done so by socialist who have no interests of enlightening their students of the reasons this country was founded or the philosophies that it is founded on. We are paying today for allowing the socialist/statist taking control of the education of our children 30 yrs ago. - -- - --------------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting Cooking With Warp 4.0 Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. OS/2 PGP 2.6.3a at: http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii/pgpmr2.html - --------------------------------------------------------------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3a Charset: cp850 Comment: Registered_User_E-Secure_v1.1b1_ES000000 iQCVAwUBNB21zY9Co1n+aLhhAQGrqwQAr2QTKRkd/khyh9ZKJ9AXYyZwnEQaqO/e ZU/+1EXJDTStSnE9W5wQO64u2l1Z8M3iKF1x6Ucf80O2wINrarwBhiblzq6i8OuX KvNx9EIT0cHRL/Vs4CJj7wwuBiBg+safKmw2R/gHDyCL7XICpYoBA0mbOSyk0zAv Kko8mjwTflE= =7wue -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On Mon, 15 Sep 1997, William H. Geiger III wrote:
This is quite understandable.
There is very little teaching of the Constitution or of Government in public schools. Many years ago when I was in HS Civics entailed a 1 semester course 1/2hr a day in your senior year. While American history may still be taught in the public schools it is done so by socialist who have no interests of enlightening their students of the reasons this country was founded or the philosophies that it is founded on.
Personally I had one semester of American Gov't, we had to memorize the preamble (I know longer remember all of it, but I know the general ideas), we studied the Bill of Rights (and the 14th Amendment), and the general ideas of the constitution. While I don't think I got all the questions correct on the quiz (some of the specific details, etc.), I know the general ideas.
We are paying today for allowing the socialist/statist taking control of the education of our children 30 yrs ago.
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participants (4)
-
Declan McCullagh -
Doug Geiger -
Jim Burnes -
William H. Geiger III