Editorial Comment

Astounding Civic Illiteracy EDITOR’S NOTE: The following guest editorial is by Neal R. Peirce, noted writer on

state and local affairs. Copyright 1979, The Washington Post Company.

NLY 3 PERCENT of the nation’s 17- and 18-year-olds can correct- 0 ly identify Alaska and Hawaii as the last two states to join the Union. Only 38 percent realize a voter can split his party choice between President and other offices. A scant 4 percent can name the three men to serve as President immediately before Gerald Ford. A quarter don’t realize that New Jersey is on the East Coast, Oregon on the West Coast. Only 44 percent know California is the most heavily populated state.

If such survey results raise your concerns about the young people coming of voting age, your fears are shared by the man who took the poll, George Gallup, Sr. Gallup spoke of “tremendous political illiteracy” among the young as he presented the survey results to the poll’s co-sponsor, the National Municipal League, at the League’s National Conference on Government in Louisville.

Other results of the survey, which the Gallup organization adminis- tered to 1,000 17- and 18-year olds across the country last year under a grant from the Scherman Foundation of New York: Only 29 percent realize that conventions make the final choice of presidential nominees. A third don’t know which party has a majority in Congress. Ninety-seven percent know they’re eligible to vote at 18, but only 42 percent apparently had heard of absentee ballots and knew how they’d get their vote counted if they were away from their home district on election day.

The intent of this “citizenship test,” Gallup said, was to see how young people could handle questions any reasonably well-informed voter should be able to answer. On American history, only 60 percent could name the war in which states’ rights was an issue. Only 57 percent knew Russia fought on our side in World War II and only 55 percent knew Joseph Stalin’s nationality.

On geography, 93 percent could name the capital of their state. But only 23 percent had any idea of the distance between New York and San Francisco. Only 28 percent guessed close to the US population total. Forty-one percent didn’t know China is the world’s most heavily

120

EDIT0 RIAL COMMENT 121

populated nation; 61 percent hadn’t grasped the fact that Mexico has more people than Canada.

Gallup said he was particularly shocked by the young people’s ignorance of basic geography. “In my day, 50 or 60 years ago, even though America was very isolated then, we had to draw maps of the world and show all the capitals.” Now, Gallup noted, although transportation has made the world smaller and the United States’ role is far more important, geography has dropped out of the curriculum of the schools and been folded into social studies-with the dreary results his poll indicated.

On foreign policy, the results were equally poor. Only 40 percent knew what NATO is; only 18 percent had any notion of what “detente” means; a scant 15 percent could identify Ottawa as the capital of Canada. Eighty-seven percent could identify Adolph Hitler with Ger- many, but only 53 percent matched Golda Meir with Israel; 60 percent, lndira Ghandi with India; 20 percent, Marshal Tito with Yugoslavia.

The failing marks of about-to-be-voters come as no surprise to many professional educators. The National Assessment of Educa- tional Progress, conducted by the Education Commission of the States, has shown poor and declining achievement rates for 17-year- olds on basic elements of knowledge about the US governmental system since the early 1970s. Barely half, in the last survey, knew that each state has two US senators and that the number of representa- tives is based on populat;on. Only 50 percent realized the President cannot appoint people to Congress; less than half knew the Senate must confirm Supreme Court appointments. The National Assess- ment also raised some storm flags on the civil liberties front. A third of 17-year-olds, for instance, did not believe that a newspaper or magazine should be allowed to publish articles critical of a govern- ment official.

Civic illiteracy goes hand in hand with declines in national student performance on standard achievement tests, a concern in virtually every state and region. It’s difficult not to place a major share of the burden at the doorstep of the country’s schools and schoolteachers.

On the curriculum front, all states maintain a minimum teaching requirement in American history. But social studies as a whole-not just geography-have been seriously eclipsed. “Social studies are receiving very low priority in the curriculum and the attrition rate of these courses is very high. Electives are being substituted for hard- core government classes,” says National Council for the Social

122 NATIONAL CIVIC REVIEW

Studies President Anna Achoa. She notes a drop from 700,000 to 450,000 students enrolled in civics courses between 1961 and 1973. In addition to poor teaching and inadequate curricula, young

Americans’ civic illiteracy may stem from a growing “taking for granted” of the stable US system of government. A 16-nation Interna- tional Assessment of Educational Achievement showed young people in Japan, Germany and Israel, all of which have experienced sharp governmental change, much higher in history and civics.

While we wring our collective hands and search for corrective steps, Dr. Gallup offers us the entertainment of some certified answers of young people who took his citizenship test:

Question: “Who was the Democratic candidate for President in 1972?” Answer: “Richard Ford.”

Question: “In what year did Columbus discover America?” Answer: ‘ ‘ 1 942.“

Question: “Where is Angola?” Answers: “In Siberia,” “In the Philippines.”

Question: “If oil tankers cannot use the Suez Canal, by what route do they get from Saudi Arabia to the United States?” Answers: “The Panama Canal,” “1-95.”

Question: “Which were the last two states admitted to the United States?” Answers: “Florida,” “Mexico,” “Canada.”

Question: “What nation in the world has the largest population?” Answer: “United Nations.”

Question: “What language is most widely spoken in Latin American countries?” Answers: “French,” “Latin.”

Question: “Name two agencies through which the United Nations organization carries on its work throughout the world.” Answer: “CIA and FBI.”

One answer may have provided profound wisdom, however. Gal- lup’s question: “The economy of Russia is described by economists as communistic; that of Sweden as socialistic. How is ours de- scribed?” The student’s answer: “Inflationary.”