Don't Know Much About History
Are we historically illiterate?
Laura Marie Graham
3/6/07 | Nation
A recent study published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute shows that American college students, as the song goes, don’t know much about history—our history; any history.
In a press release issued on February 8th, in time for President’s Day, ISI researchers found that in a study of college seniors, including some at America’s most prestigious universities, most scored less than 60% correct on a relatively simple questionnaire about America’s presidents. For example, 36 percent of seniors failed to correctly determine during which 25-year period was Abraham Lincoln elected. The study reveals that twenty-five percent of Harvard seniors answered the question incorrectly. (Don’t feel too bad about that Top 50 thing fellow Colonials!).
This information was taken from a broader study funded by ISI and conducted by the University of Connecticut’s Department of Public Policy in the fall of 2005. The study asked over 14,000 randomly selected students at 50 colleges and universities across the country 60 multiple-choice questions to test their knowledge in American history, government, America and the world, and the market economy. The study concludes that “if the survey were administered as an exam in a college course, seniors would fail with an overall average score of 53.2 percent, or F on a traditional grading scale.”
While GW was not included in the study, other local universities were surveyed. Seniors at Georgetown and American University ended up on top with the still dismal scores of 67.9 and 64.4 percent respectively, while others performed even more pathetically, with scores of 55.9 percent at George Mason, 54.4 percent at Johns Hopkins, and 49.1 percent at Catholic University.
Much more disturbing than the lack of what some would say was “trivial knowledge” (they say “trivial,” I say “basic and necessary for understanding the larger picture”) is the lack of improvement in overall knowledge throughout students’ college careers. The front page of the ISI study ominously declares that “there is trivial difference between freshmen and seniors in their knowledge of America’s heritage. 16 of 50 schools surveyed exhibited negative learning.” That’s right: “negative learning.” At those 16 schools, including Georgetown and Johns Hopkins of the five local schools previously mentioned, the freshmen scored higher than seniors, demonstrating a decline in knowledge while attending such illustrious institutions. The report details that “seniors scored just 1.5 percent higher on average than freshmen.” College should be a time for questioning and finding answers, but it seems as if most students are going deeply into financial debt without increasing their intellectual coffers. These emptying coffers in the subjects that will be necessary to help students become active and informed citizens leave our generation particularly poor in the ongoing fight for civilization.
For all of the huffing and puffing amongst college students about the need for a more “enlightened” foreign policy, only about 56% knew how President Kennedy ended the Cuban Missile Crisis (answer: a naval blockade). How do you expect to deal with contemporary foreign threats effectively, if you don’t know how they’ve been dealt with in the past?
And it’s not just that students lack foreign policy knowledge or the history of “dead white men.” After an entire generation of women’s studies programs and diversity offices, less than 60% could name the 25-year period during which women gained the right to vote. Only slightly more than 80% could identify the message of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
ISI suggests several solutions to these problems based on practices that have been shown to give students an advantage in their original study. Some include “increasing the number of required history, political science, and economics courses.” I agree with that one whole-heartedly—I’ve always found it faintly ridiculous that in order to graduate as a well-rounded individual from the Columbian College I will need to learn to make a pot or dance but could slip through without a single course in American history. Certainly pre-med majors might ask why they need a course in American government or history, but while only a select few will be performing surgery someday, we will all be expected to vote.
Another interesting suggestion from ISI is to “build academic centers on campuses to encourage and support the restoration of teaching American history, political science, and economics.” Foreign funding for dubious studies programs is not a new problem. In a 1996 New York Times article entitled “Universities Find Foreign Donations Sometimes Carry Price,” the author details the problems several prominent universities have run into when they accept money from shady foreign governments or officials. The kind of ridiculousness that spews forth from these cauldrons of anti-Americanism needs to be countered by well-funded, well-staffed centers that educate students about the story of America.
Some would like to portray America’s history as nothing more than the oppression of one group of people after another, but any serious thinker will realize that this is a facile and false portrait. The whole story of America includes not just her sins, but the great ideas and people that have led this nation on the long march of freedom. It’s a story that, when given serious consideration, will lead most to conclude that the greatness and rightness of America has rightfully earned the love of her citizens and deserves defense from the ideologies of barbarism and terrorism that plague our world today.
The trouble of civic and historical illiteracy amongst college students does not begin in college. This phenomenon is largely the manifestation of inadequate education in high schools. Just a generation ago, civics was a required class—how many of us have that opportunity today? History is also rarely taught in the way it should be—as a great story—in high schools, thus permanently turning people off to the subject. There are, however, signs of hope. Professor Tyler Anbinder, a wonderful 19th century history professor here at GW, recently told me he is taking part in a program wherein excellent college professors work with high school teachers to help them better educate their students about history.
This problem will not be fixed easily or quickly, since we did not get in this state easily or quickly. However, it is encouraging to know that there are concrete steps that can and are being taken to correct the situation before it is too late, and we completely forget who we are as Americans. One easy thing our readers can do to correct historical illiteracy in themselves and others at GW is join The GW Lincoln Society, a group designed to study the history of the Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. At least we can insure for that important period in our history that we will, in the words of Lincoln himself, “never forget what they did here.”
Full Disclosure: The GW Patriot is a member of the Collegiate Network, a consortium of student-run papers that is a subsidiary of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. For more information about the study, and to take a short quiz on civic literacy, go to
www.AmericanCivicLiteracy.com.
Laura Graham is a junior majoring in history and political science and chief Lincolnphile of the GW Lincoln Society. Many days you can catch her reciting the names of all the presidents while walking to class.
In a press release issued on February 8th, in time for President’s Day, ISI researchers found that in a study of college seniors, including some at America’s most prestigious universities, most scored less than 60% correct on a relatively simple questionnaire about America’s presidents. For example, 36 percent of seniors failed to correctly determine during which 25-year period was Abraham Lincoln elected. The study reveals that twenty-five percent of Harvard seniors answered the question incorrectly. (Don’t feel too bad about that Top 50 thing fellow Colonials!).
This information was taken from a broader study funded by ISI and conducted by the University of Connecticut’s Department of Public Policy in the fall of 2005. The study asked over 14,000 randomly selected students at 50 colleges and universities across the country 60 multiple-choice questions to test their knowledge in American history, government, America and the world, and the market economy. The study concludes that “if the survey were administered as an exam in a college course, seniors would fail with an overall average score of 53.2 percent, or F on a traditional grading scale.”
While GW was not included in the study, other local universities were surveyed. Seniors at Georgetown and American University ended up on top with the still dismal scores of 67.9 and 64.4 percent respectively, while others performed even more pathetically, with scores of 55.9 percent at George Mason, 54.4 percent at Johns Hopkins, and 49.1 percent at Catholic University.
Much more disturbing than the lack of what some would say was “trivial knowledge” (they say “trivial,” I say “basic and necessary for understanding the larger picture”) is the lack of improvement in overall knowledge throughout students’ college careers. The front page of the ISI study ominously declares that “there is trivial difference between freshmen and seniors in their knowledge of America’s heritage. 16 of 50 schools surveyed exhibited negative learning.” That’s right: “negative learning.” At those 16 schools, including Georgetown and Johns Hopkins of the five local schools previously mentioned, the freshmen scored higher than seniors, demonstrating a decline in knowledge while attending such illustrious institutions. The report details that “seniors scored just 1.5 percent higher on average than freshmen.” College should be a time for questioning and finding answers, but it seems as if most students are going deeply into financial debt without increasing their intellectual coffers. These emptying coffers in the subjects that will be necessary to help students become active and informed citizens leave our generation particularly poor in the ongoing fight for civilization.
For all of the huffing and puffing amongst college students about the need for a more “enlightened” foreign policy, only about 56% knew how President Kennedy ended the Cuban Missile Crisis (answer: a naval blockade). How do you expect to deal with contemporary foreign threats effectively, if you don’t know how they’ve been dealt with in the past?
And it’s not just that students lack foreign policy knowledge or the history of “dead white men.” After an entire generation of women’s studies programs and diversity offices, less than 60% could name the 25-year period during which women gained the right to vote. Only slightly more than 80% could identify the message of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
ISI suggests several solutions to these problems based on practices that have been shown to give students an advantage in their original study. Some include “increasing the number of required history, political science, and economics courses.” I agree with that one whole-heartedly—I’ve always found it faintly ridiculous that in order to graduate as a well-rounded individual from the Columbian College I will need to learn to make a pot or dance but could slip through without a single course in American history. Certainly pre-med majors might ask why they need a course in American government or history, but while only a select few will be performing surgery someday, we will all be expected to vote.
Another interesting suggestion from ISI is to “build academic centers on campuses to encourage and support the restoration of teaching American history, political science, and economics.” Foreign funding for dubious studies programs is not a new problem. In a 1996 New York Times article entitled “Universities Find Foreign Donations Sometimes Carry Price,” the author details the problems several prominent universities have run into when they accept money from shady foreign governments or officials. The kind of ridiculousness that spews forth from these cauldrons of anti-Americanism needs to be countered by well-funded, well-staffed centers that educate students about the story of America.
Some would like to portray America’s history as nothing more than the oppression of one group of people after another, but any serious thinker will realize that this is a facile and false portrait. The whole story of America includes not just her sins, but the great ideas and people that have led this nation on the long march of freedom. It’s a story that, when given serious consideration, will lead most to conclude that the greatness and rightness of America has rightfully earned the love of her citizens and deserves defense from the ideologies of barbarism and terrorism that plague our world today.
The trouble of civic and historical illiteracy amongst college students does not begin in college. This phenomenon is largely the manifestation of inadequate education in high schools. Just a generation ago, civics was a required class—how many of us have that opportunity today? History is also rarely taught in the way it should be—as a great story—in high schools, thus permanently turning people off to the subject. There are, however, signs of hope. Professor Tyler Anbinder, a wonderful 19th century history professor here at GW, recently told me he is taking part in a program wherein excellent college professors work with high school teachers to help them better educate their students about history.
This problem will not be fixed easily or quickly, since we did not get in this state easily or quickly. However, it is encouraging to know that there are concrete steps that can and are being taken to correct the situation before it is too late, and we completely forget who we are as Americans. One easy thing our readers can do to correct historical illiteracy in themselves and others at GW is join The GW Lincoln Society, a group designed to study the history of the Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. At least we can insure for that important period in our history that we will, in the words of Lincoln himself, “never forget what they did here.”
Full Disclosure: The GW Patriot is a member of the Collegiate Network, a consortium of student-run papers that is a subsidiary of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. For more information about the study, and to take a short quiz on civic literacy, go to
www.AmericanCivicLiteracy.com.
Laura Graham is a junior majoring in history and political science and chief Lincolnphile of the GW Lincoln Society. Many days you can catch her reciting the names of all the presidents while walking to class.
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