News 14 Carolina - Political Connections

So, Rob Christenson's column this Sunday got the best of my curiosity. It was about a civics test given to college students and they didn't do so great. In fact, even some of the "top" schools got D's at best on this test.

Rob's story on the web had a link to the actual quiz and I took it. Now, I consider myself about average when it comes to history and still a pretty young buck so I didn't know how I would fare. In full disclosure, I ended up in the high 70's. Rob was in the high 80's and my friend Laura Leslie from WUNC was in the 80's as well.

I have to admit some of the questions were easy and others I found extremely difficult. It got me thinking though.

From kindergarten through college, my classes focused on the civil and revolutionary war. We went in-depth beyond belief. However, we barely covered anything past 1900 and it was done in about a week.

After college and a few years in the "real world", I began wanting to learn again instead of having to learn. So, I began to try and devour as much info beginning with FDR to get caught up. This year's Christmas list is full of history and political books specifically on NC, so I'm excited about that as well.

My point is we never really learned enough about things that have had a major impact on my life. Granted the beginning of this country is vital to me being here in this capacity, but it got me thinking about why I didn't know many of the questions asked on the civics test.

It also got me wondering did others have the same experience in school that I did?

If you're interested, here's the link to the quiz.

http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx