Letter: Citizenship quiz questions don’t promote critical thinking

Citizenship quiz questions don’t promote critical thinking

The July 4 editorial, “How well can you do on the citizenship quiz,” is a perfect example of what is wrong with our journalism, which doesn’t read critically what it writes, and our public education, which teaches memorization instead of discovery in history and current events. Neither demonstrates or teaches critical thinking.

The editorial lists 25 questions from the U.S. citizenship test. Two of the given answers are simply wrong:

#15. How many justices are on the Supreme Court? The correct answer is 8, not 9 — thanks to the Senate Republicans’ unconstitutional obstructionism.

#5. What is the economic system in the United States? Not a capitalist, market economy. We made significant modifications to our economy in the 1930s and 1960s with Social Security and Medicare — Democratic socialist corrections to the excesses of free market capitalism that brought us the Great Depression and threatened to bankrupt our elders without access to healthcare.

For #25 — When do we celebrate Independence Day? — the answer is problematic. For white American men with property, the anniversary of July 4, 1776 works. For African-Americans, Juneteenth, the anniversary of June 19, 1865, works better. For women, Aug. 26, 1920, the passage of the 19th Amendment is worth celebrating. Native American citizens may not celebrate.

This story was originally published July 13, 2016 at 3:20 AM with the headline "Letter: Citizenship quiz questions don’t promote critical thinking."