Tuesday, November 25, 2008

American civics liberty test: your chance to whump me

Especially you homeschooling moms.

Test your own American civic literacy.

I got an 84.85%, and only thanks to my own homeschooling of our two older children. My dear wife whumped me. You will too.

(It'll make you all feel better about that whole Bible or bard unpleasantness.)

60 comments:

CR said...

I got the same score as you, Dan.

DJP said...

I feel instantly better.

Wait 'till Starke sees this. Think she'll cheat?

Jerry said...

You were right!

31 out of 33, 93.94%

DJP said...

Cool.

What'd you get on your first try?

Tom Gee said...

Hey, I got 84.85% too.

The only thing is, I'm Canadian. Eh.

CR said...

DJP: Wait 'till Starke sees this. Think she'll cheat?

I thank Rachael will cream us. No pressure, Rachael. None at all. :=)

CR said...

On one question, I was trying to idealistic and hoping the test would agree. You know, it's kinda like, how evolution is an absolute lie, but you have to agree with the lie to answer the question correctly. Oh well...

CR said...

Tomgee: The only thing is, I'm Canadian. Eh.

Canada, hmmm...that's one of the countries that is not part of the North America Free Trade Agreement, right?

Ed Groover said...

96.97%.

:)

DJP said...

{ reverently }

Duuuude.

{ pause }

How many times did you take it?

Ben Stevenson said...

I got 84.85% too. And I'm British, but with an interest in American blogs. I think I would have got a low score if I had relied on what I learned at school and from television.

Anonymous said...

CR, you're kidding...right?

NAFTA was Canada/US long before Mexico came on board...

Anonymous said...

OK, not long before...

Chris H said...

75.76%. I was going to use, "I'm Canadian," as my excuse/reason, but I see one of my hoser brethren beat my score...

Neil said...

81.82%

CR said...

Daryl,

Of course, I was kidding. I thought everyone would get the joke.

DJP said...

Buggie: psh. Foreigner.

Neil said...

I'm from Arkansas.

DJP said...

Yeah, north Arkansas. 'WAY north Arkansas.

CR said...

South, Foreign Country, same thing, Bugblaster.

Neil said...

That quiz had a Keynesian bias. I think it came from the Office of the President-Elect.

Rachael Starke said...

66.67%.

But I actually consider this an excellent score, given that I actually maintain 3 citizenships:

3. American, but only by birth
2. Australian, by parentage and education.
1. Heaven.

And given my first citizenship, I was prohibted from retaking it after I could not avert mine eyes from the handy list of answers to the ones I missed.

I thus offer up my score as a symbol of both highly respectable aptitude when graded on an international curve, and humility and integrity.

Anonymous said...

93.94%

That quiz definitely had a Keynesian bias.

DJP said...

Well, I'm surprisificated, Rachael.

I'm sure you do better on #1 citizenship tests, though.

Rachael Starke said...

And for the record, at first I was getting frustated over all the high scores this crew were posting on the Bible vs. Shakespeare quiz because of the whole English major/language apptitude thang.

Then I suddenly realized that what this test was really about was not how well I knew Shakespeare's words, but how well I knew God's.

Then I had a minor spiritual crisis.

Thank you so much.

DJP said...

Ohh, I'm sorry. Take our expectations as indicators of how you've impressed us all. That's not changed!

If I hadn't taught some of that stuff to my two older kids, I'd've scored about 12% on the basis of my own government reeducation camp experiences. I was a very poor, undisciplined student.

Mike Westfall said...

100% !!!

Woo hoo.

My kids are homeschooled, too.

DJP said...

Our first perfect score.

That's how it works: the kids get homeschooled, the parents get an education.

CR said...

Well, I was not homeschooled, but have you stayed at a Holiday Inn Express before, Mesa Mike. I have. Bet you have not, so, THERE!

RT said...

96.97% and quite frankly I prefer my answer to question 33 anyway.

DJP said...

LOL, that is so classic. All of you are missing out by not knowing RT. Only RT would miss a question, and then fault the test!

Mike Westfall said...

The one about the main issue of the Lincoln-Douglas debates almost got me. Luckily, I guessed the right one.

I'm sure that had I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, I would've breezed right through that question.

Mike Westfall said...

Heh. Well I thought of picking "government is not helping anybody" for #33, which I think should count as a correct answer.

RT said...

That's a correct answer to nearly any question.

matt mckendrick said...

100%. I think a better civic liberties test would have more constitutional stuff and less on economic theory.

Hey Dan, I was in Boston this weekend and went to Legal Sea Food. Good stuff!

Tim Curtis said...

I got 93.94%. much better thqn I did on the Bible vs. Bard I regret to say.

coldwell said...

96.97%

CR said...

Rachael: 66.67%.

Did you vote for Obama, Rachael?

.
.
.

I am SOOOOO kidding!

DJP said...

MDeane — ohh, isn't it just the greatest? What a wonderful place. What did you have?

Gilbert said...

61%. A few threw me for a loop on the wording, but the rest I have no excuse. Let the meat chubbing begin.

Oh...phew! That's only on Pyro. :-)

:-(

candy said...

I forgot my grade but it was a low C...and I teach 5/6 grade. I felt better after mdeane mentioned economics. I just am not that great on economic questions. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

threegirldad said...

Blast it -- missed the question about the function of the Federal Reserve. Oh, well...

Rick Beckman said...

81.82% here, a lot better than I thought. I *misread* the answer re: Roe v. Wade as meaning the opposite of what it really did, though, so that hurt my score a bit.

Still, 81.82% is passing. B-, baby! :D

Carol Jean said...

Homeschooling mom with an abysmal 79% here. In my defense, I missed a couple because I didn't read them carefully enough (at 2 AM).

DJP said, "If I hadn't taught some of that stuff to my two older kids, I'd've scored about 12% on the basis of my own government reeducation camp experiences. I was a very poor, undisciplined student."

Amen to that! Same here!!! My 17-year-old took it last night and embarrassed his old mother with an 89 point-something - and he hasn't even formally "taken" government yet - although the homeschool dad who teaches American history for our co-op could rival some of DJP's rant's about the state of government and political affairs :)

Quote from Dr. Jay Wile when asked how you teach your kids something you don't know yourself: "If they can learn it, you can to."

@ RT: My son agrees with you that D was not the best answer to Question 33.

Barbara said...

I scored better on "Bible or Bard": 80 vs 72. Not too bad for someone who hasn't gone near Shakespeard in over twenty years and who only just really opened a Bible for the first time this past March. Gotta give the Spirit His due - HE can surely teach :)

I look at it this way: Sheep know the voice of their Shepherd, but principles of economics do nothing but twist my brain into various pretzel-shapes in order to try to accommodate it all (I'm a very concrete, linear kinda gal)...although 27E did make me laugh out loud.

And "life, liberty and property" is on something, doggone it! "Pursuit of happiness" - no wonder we are a people as we are.

Magister Stevenson said...

I got an 87.something (should pay more attention next time). Pretty good for someone who hasn't looked at civics since the early years of Bush I.
Don't be so hard on the government reeducation camps. I'm thankful for mine, and the one I work at now lets me teach cool stuff like Latin!

(runs as readers pick up stones)

matt mckendrick said...

Got the lobster- it was delicious.

Coincidently, the Society of Biblical Literature was holding a conference at our hotel; I saw Doug Moo walking around.

DJP said...

Oh my, yes, I had the lobster. Wow.

DJP said...

Magister Stevenson — Latin! I should also have consulted you on the title of this post.

Anonymous said...

93.94% but #33 was poorly worded. I may have to resign now.

GrammaMack said...

72.73. I'm a Canadian, but I see that that's no excuse. I'll have to come up with another one...

lee n. field said...

I got pointed to this from another online venue a couple days ago.

32 out of 33.

Anonymous said...

93.94% here. Can't remember one of the two I missed, but the one was the economic policy for a rough economy. I thought it meant Government's role, so I chose less tax and less spending. ::sigh::

Did anyone else look at the table that compared citizens to public officials? We whumped the socks off of them in most areas!!

Doesn't that just figure?

CR said...

Known as the Keynesian "multiplier" Reallyrobins. For every dollar the government spends, it's suppose to add up 1.5 dollars in economic growth. The problem with that notion is that in order for the government to spend that $1, it has to either raise taxes or increase borrowing. Out of principle, I answered that question incorrectly and hoped the test was more conservative.

Ken Abbott said...

96.97%--stumbled at the very end. That last question seems to have several victims.

DJP said...

Reallyrobins
Doesn't that just figure?


It really does.

Angie said...

93.94 %, a better score than on the Bible vs. Bard quiz. Indeed it had a lot of economic theory, and that was my downfall. Economic theory is not the function of government, merely something that influences our opinion of what the government ought to do in order to fulfill its proper function.

Ted said...

93.94 %

Stefan Ewing said...

31 out of 33 questions—93.94%. I only missed the questions on Roosevelt's response to the Supreme Court, and the reason why flood levees are a public good.

And I'm a Canucklehead—but that one economics course I took in college helped with a good third of the questions.

William Dicks said...

Got 75.76% on the test. But, then I am a South African living in South Africa!