For Kelly!
P.S. I suspect most Americans would be in a similar boat...and sinking.
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OTTAWA (Reuters) - Most Canadians know so little about their own country that they would flunk the basic test that new immigrants are required to take before becoming citizens, according to a poll released on Friday.
The Ipsos-Reid survey showed that 60 percent of Canadians would fail the test. A similar poll done in 1997 showed a failure rate of 45 percent.
"Canadians appear to be losing knowledge when it comes to the most basic questions about Canadian history, politics, culture and geography ... (they) performed abysmally on some questions," the firm said in a statement.
Only 4 percent knew the three requirements a citizen had to meet to be able to vote while only a third could correctly identify the number of provinces and territories. Just 8 percent knew that Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state.
The survey was carried out for the Dominion Institute, which aims to boost knowledge of Canadian history and values. It said all high school students should have to pass a special citizenship exam before they can graduate.
"It is frankly disheartening to see the lack of progress made by our group and the countless other organizations working to improve civic literary of Canadians over the last 10 years," said institute co-founder Rudyard Griffiths.
The Ipsos-Reid survey of 1,005 adults was conducted between June 5 and 7 and is considered to be accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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4 comments:
I heard about this study last week and was disgusted.
Most of if not all of our younger generation don't even know the words to God Save The Queen, let alone the first two verses of our national anthem.
Scarey stuff.
Any studies of USA students knowing anything about out Constitution, Bill of Right? I thing we had to memorize the Preamble to the BoR:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
I remembered the first part, had to look it up to get the rest. Hey, it was a long time ago.
I'm impressed! Much more than I know, and I still work for the Government :/
I sadly suspect that US citizens today wouldnt do to well either. Probably have millions that cant even speak english and still pledge theyre loyalty to theyre home country. My wife was born, raised, and educated in Jamaica and still knows God Save the Queen. Her short prep for the citizenship interview probably put her ahead of the rest of us on the basics. Their education system produces some brilliant people. Oh and the DC snipers. I've met young people who knew all the words to numerous "50 cent" songs though. Dont we rank somewhere near the bottom of the international list of academic competency?
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