Collegiate Times

Pop quiz: Why do all states have to recognize driver’s licenses issued in other states?

As you scramble for Wikipedia, think about this: For a nation with a very high level of well-educated citizens, a basic understanding of its history and civics seems implied. However, political commentator John Whitehead recently cited a study of high school students in Oklahoma that found only three percent of students would be able to pass the United States immigration exam. Whitehead also notes that only 28 percent were able to identify the “supreme law of the land” (the Constitution) — while even less knew that Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. He also reported “barely one out of every four students knew that George Washington was the nation’s first president. None of the students correctly answered eight or more of the 10 questions, and 97 percent scored 50 percent or less.” In contrast, 93 percent of people from foreign countries passed the same exam.

For anyone thinking, “why does this matter,” or possibly, “high school kids are just stupid,” have you come up with the answer to my question yet without cheating? Saying, “because the federal government makes them” doesn’t cut it. Furthermore, Whitehead also cited another study by the American Civics Literacy Program, which reported a meager 32 percent pass rate among people with graduate-level degrees. This pandemic of civic ignorance is spreading faster than the swine flu, and even educated people are not immune.

As for the question of importance, the great philosopher of America, Thomas Jefferson, had a few things to say on this. “I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.” As a lifelong proponent of liberty, education and the common man, Jefferson knew these three things could not survive without each other. Likewise, as the quote suggests, he knew that the threat of taking power away from people ignorant of their rights would always be present. For this reason, the importance of civic education should be clear.

So how did it come to this? How is it that the strongest nation in the world doesn’t even know its own young history? Part of the problem is in our culture. University education in modern America is all too often a manufacturing and business enterprise. In high school, everything is done with respect to the goal of college. “I have to get into this school” seems to be the thinking. We don’t care about what we learn — as long as we get an ‘A’ so we can go to Virginia Tech or UVa.

Unfortunately, this teleological approach stays with us once we reach college: “I have to study something and make lots of money when I graduate. That’s the plan.” Believe me, I have no qualms about people making money — I certainly do not want to live paycheck to paycheck, and I cannot expect anyone else to want to either. But that’s not why I’m at Tech, it’s not why I want to go to law school when I graduate, and it’s certainly not why I’m writing this column. I’m at Tech because I wanted to go to a big in-state school. I want to go to law school because I believe in civil liberties, and I want to be able to serve — Ut Prosim Pro Deus, to borrow slightly from Tech’s motto — and I’m writing this column to implore everyone to take up their crosses. Pick an issue, take a stand and fight for your rights and other’s rights as well. Whether it’s gay marriage, poverty, alternative energy, it really doesn’t matter. Just find an issue and take a side.

The problem is that if you don’t know history and civics, it becomes very hard to make your point, and to convince Congress of the need for change. Politicians almost always have liberal arts backgrounds; this is how they think and how they argue. Likewise, there is nothing in the study of accounting that can foster an argument for free press. It’s foolhardy to think we can simply demand action based on sheer numbers: movements need leaders, leaders educated of the history and legality of their cause. Saying “I feel like gay marriage is OK” won’t be enough. Because of this, I call on everyone to learn and understand history — not just the facts, but what the facts mean. Additionally, learn your rights. Read the Constitution, take a history class, anything to be able to identify the author of the Declaration of Independence. As was implied by Jefferson’s prescription for civic education, the remedy of stealing rights from a society ignorant of them is always lurking in the darkness.

For those that read through this column, the answer to the question is the Full Faith and Credit Clause, in Article IV of the Constitution. But if you read this entire column, I’d wager you already know that.