SMART IS one thing; knowledgeable is entirely different. A smart person can, for instance, write a strong, intelligent essay on a topic he knows a lot about. But if he isn't knowledgeable, the ability to write about what he knows does him no good.
The best American universities undoubtedly have smart students. But do they have truly knowledgeable ones? Perhaps not. Research shows that the smartest American students aren't knowledgeable by even the lowest standards.
A recent survey by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni demonstrates that even the top American college students don't have a fundamental knowledge of a basic subject -- history.
The researchers tested history knowledge among seniors at the 55 top-ranked universities. The exam was multiple choice, with four answer choices per question, and was based on a high school curriculum. Sounds like a test students at elite colleges wouldn't have any trouble with, right? Wrong. Over 80 percent got a D or F.
This test format shouldn't be hard; a sample question illustrates why. Students were asked to identify the American general at Yorktown, the final battle of the Revolutionary War. The correct answer was George Washington. Two thirds got this wrong. That would be understandable if they were simply asked to name the general. But this was multiple choice. The other answers, which two thirds of the students chose, were Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Douglas MacArthur. Grant and Sherman fought in the Civil War; MacArthur was in command at the end of World War II. All this question really was asking was if students could distinguish the Revolutionary War from the Civil War and World War II. Two out of three students couldn't.
Even with this ignorance-friendly test format, 40 percent couldn't place the Civil War in the correct 50-year period. Not the exact year, or even the right decade -- the correct 50-year range out of four possibilities.
Eighty percent couldn't identify "Government of the people, by the people, for the people" as being from what is perhaps the most famous American political speech ever -- Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
These questions are not historical minutiae -- they're basic facts from a high school curriculum. And these questions were not asked of the general public. The students tested were the cream of the crop -- our nation's elite.
There was some good news, though. Our elite students didn't get everything wrong. There were two questions they consistently got right: identifying Beavis and Butthead (99 percent) and Snoop Doggy Dogg (98 percent).
The historical ignorance these results indicate is disturbing. A country's strength depends significantly on the unity of its people. Those bonds are a product of a common history -- shared experiences from which we as a nation hopefully have learned. Evidently, we don't share that anymore.
But as troublesome as our crumbling historical awareness is, it's nonetheless predictable. Knowledge is largely a function of exposure. You tend to learn what you're taught; you rarely learn what you aren't taught.
Not a single one of the 55 schools surveyed in this report requires its students to take an American history class. No exposure, no knowledge. Students don't know what they've never seen. They do know what they've seen repeatedly -- pop culture. That explains the nearly perfect scores on Beavis, Butthead and Snoop.
The conclusion to draw from this is simple: Historical knowledge is no longer an educational priority. In the push towards broader, more liberal education, the fundamentals got pushed right out of the way.
We no longer care about whether we actually know anything. Perhaps that's a product of tremendous advances in information systems and data organization -- why devote energy to knowing anything when that information is only a mouseclick away?
Instead, education has come to focus almost entirely on the abstract skills a liberal arts education provides. These days, teaching means teaching skills -- how to think, how to communicate, how to read intelligently, how to approach information.
Those are crucial skills to have. But skills are worthless without something to use them on. Our current method is like teaching someone how to build a house, but refusing to give them any wood or nails.
Our elite universities are continuing to "educate" the smartest American students of our generation. But actual, concrete knowledge is getting left behind.
Results like those from this survey are all too common these days. We can't ignore them. Universities need to rethink their liberal arts focus.
A liberal arts framework is still workable for education -- but it needs to include a minimum body of fundamental knowledge. Core requirements -- such as basic American history -- need to be forced on students for their own good through required courses. Otherwise, we're going to continue to produce generations of smart, "educated" people who don't actually know a thing.
(Bryan Maxwell is a Cavalier Daily Opinion editor.)
Read More
SULLIVAN: Ramp up physical accessibility on Grounds
By Scarlett Sullivan | YesterdayThe University must take responsibility for the inaccessibility of Grounds and work to promote accessibility for all students despite misguided laws.
EDITORIAL: Scapegoating students will not stop hazing
By Editorial Board | 3 days agoInstead of retroactively responding to extreme hazing allegations, we, and especially the University, must begin asking more probing questions about the role of fraternal organizations on Grounds.
EDITORIAL: Celebrating and reflecting on The Cavalier Daily’s independence
By Editorial Board | April 18, 2024Our independence grants us the ability to ask the hard questions and to say what University representatives cannot.
