Sobering Facts

Adult Americans

Between 1989 and 2007 Americans knowledge of current events dropped by 8.3%
93% know Arnold Schwarzenegger while 36% know Vladimir Putin
32% know Sunni and Shia as two branches of Islam
41% know the name Muslims use to refer to God and the name of Islam’s sacred text
33% believe that Iraq carried out the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington
25% of public biology teachers believe that humans and dinosaurs inhabited the earth simultaneously
14% estimate the world’s population at 30 billion or more
86% do not know the world population
48% predict the world’s population doubling in less than 20 years (UN estimates 50)
25% cannot name any First Amendment rights
62% cannot name the three branches of the United States government

Americans age 18-24

33% cannot locate Louisiana on a U.S. map
48% cannot locate the state of Mississippi on a U.S. map
47% cannot locate India on a map of Asia.
75% cannot locate Israel on a map of the Middle East
70% cannot locate North Korea on a map of Asia
60% cannot locate Iraq on a map
33% cannot locate the direction “northwest”
<30% think it is absolutely necessary to know where countries in the news are located
86% believe speaking another language fluently is not a necessary skill.
74% believe English is the primary language spoken by the most people in the world
30% believe the most heavily fortified border in the world is the U.S.-Mexican border

Will this situation improve?

~67% of American high school seniors read below the proficient level
>50% of American adults have not read any work of fiction or poetry in the preceding year
American kids aged 2-5 spend ~25 hours watching live television and over 32 hours a week on average in front of the TV screen
American kids aged 6-11 spend ~22 hours watching live television and over 28 hours a week on average in front of the TV screen
American adults spend an average of 8 hours per day in front of a television, 56 hours per week

Sources:

One thought on “Sobering Facts”

So what’s the source of this problem? Modern parenting, public education, or something else? If we can identify that, we can solve it. Right?

— Mark

Autopsis