Some insight on several of the readings dealing with Americans not knowing information about American History and science deals with "American Exceptionalism" which is a term that describes how Americans see themselves as superior to other cultures. I think because we have so much technology which expands our range of objects and activities, it does not allow us to concentrate and study the fundamental subjects in which our country and lives are based on. I also think that another reason for the low scores on basic tests deals with the fact that we learn some of this information once maybe twice throughout our school career. I cannot remember the last time I had enough free time to sit down and just look over the constitution. Plus there are many other activities that I would rather be doing, or things that provide more satisfaction. One more reason that people do not score well on these subjects, is because these two areas (Science and Civil Knowledge) and specialized subjects. There are people that are payed to be experts in these fields, so if I am not getting paid to study science ( and I believe science to be one of the worst subjects on the entire planet) then why would I want to waste my time learning about something I really do not care about. I would much rather spend my time learning about a subject I am interested in.
Steven Lippman
I think it's terrible that as Americans we don't know our own history/civil knowledge. Immigrants have to pass these tests to gain citizenship, yet most of us can't even pass the test. I took the test in high school and my class did horribly. I think it's good that school's offer courses in government and civic knowledge. As Americans and as voters we should know what our country is founded on whether or not it's boring. It's embarrassing that we expect immigrants to answer questions that most Americans can't answer.
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