America the Dumbified

Besides the now increasingly harrowing weather reports, a recent national report in the past month has caught my attention.

Newsweek gave the US Citizenship test to 1,000 Americans to test their knowledge of their country's past and present history. The result yielded a staggering 38% failure among those who were tested.

To understand the difficulty level of this test, I both took the Newsweek condensed version and the multiple-choice, full version US Citizen test. With the Newsweek's abbreviated non-multiple choice test, I answered 12-20 questions correctly (60%), and with the multiple-choice format of the US Citizen test was able to correctly answer 86 out of 96 questions (90%).

Click the links to take the tests and see what I mean.

Both questionnaires were relatively easy with a majority of answers located in part of my brain not visited since 8th grade history. Several questions I answered wrong because of either getting lost in a number game or a quick rush to hit the check box without taking a second to reconsider the choice. And truthfully, without further excuse, some questions I didn't know or simply fail to recall.

But what about my fellow Americans?

According to the Newsweek report, 44% percent surveyed did not know the Bill of Rights while 73% of Americans did not know why we fought the Cold War. And among the percentages of failure, the most shocking was that 6% surveyed didn't know what day we celebrate American independence.

Is this forgetful thinking? Or being too hasty in recording an answer? Or is it because of the overwhelming dependency on having information at easy access that Americans are losing track of how to remember simple facts and figures?

Or care?

History is a tremendous asset of knowledge. American philosopher George Santayana's classic quote "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" best summarizes the importance of knowing the past. If society is failing to recognize historic events that shaped the country, what is it doing to remember the history that shaped cultural aspects of the country? That answer can be found without punching into the iPad or Droid.

Not too much to nothing at all.

Alarmingly, American children are receiving little to no art or music instruction. According to a 2005 Arts Advocacy report, 40% of American elementary schools do not have an Arts teacher. Additionally, a 2008 Center on Education Policy report noted a 35% decline in "time devoted to music and art instruction since 2002" in part due to the emphasis on standardized testing and districts limiting or, "there are indications that 41 districts or 12% of the nation, do not offer arts instruction at all."

As a result, these children become adults with little to no understanding of music or art. Combine this with the disconcern with knowing important country history and this makes for a dumb American.

Fundementally, a dumb American weakens Democracy's effectiveness. For an educated society will learn from past mistakes and refrain from the latter part of Sanayana's quote. The uneducated one will only seek to fill what is perceived relevant through subterfuge which leads to division, intolerance and unacceptance.

If American society can be redirected towards revelant historical knowledge, then the focus can also be shifted to understanding the relevancy of arts and cultural in the community. This enlightenment would replace the talking-head mantra of "because its a way of life" with a base understanding of the historical accomplishments of the Arts.

The late, great American techno-fi writer, Michael Crichton repeated this about history, "If you didn't know history, you didn't know anything. You were a leaf that didn't know it was part of the tree."

If Americans keep chosing to bury themsleves in the techno-isolation of social networks, the latest gadgets and video game indulgence, then history will be forgotten along with all those cultural aspects that make us civil.

And with that gone, history will be primed to be repeated.

Matthew LaChiusa is the Artistic Director for the American Repertory Theater of WNY, and is a huge American Civil War history geek.