Hilarious

Kevin Drum posts about how everyone is stupid!

As regular readers know, one of my pet peeves is the endless number of tests given to high school students and then trumpeted as evidence that kids today are abysmally ignorant. The standard headline is something like "80% of high school seniors can't find France on a map," but what I always wonder is: how many adults can find France on a map? Unfortunately, they never tell us that.

But ISI does. And the results are pretty simple: everyone is stupid. ISI themselves spin this as "Baby Boomers Do Best," but speaking ex cathedra for my generation, I really don't think that 52% vs. 47% (an average difference of less than two correct answers) says much about the awesomeness of boomer cultural literacy. Basically, the kids didn't do very well on ISI's test, but neither did the adults or the seniors, even though their average educational level is higher. This may be only a single fairly dubious data point, but it's still worth keeping in mind the next time you see one of those "Kids Are Stupid" headlines.

I'll be taking the test now and publishing the results if they make me look good.

UPDATE: Okay, so that test was a lot easier than I expected and I still got only 88% right. Some of the questions were worded pretty poorly, if you ask me, and others required either knowing precise history or came down to a 50/50 guess. Plus, I always make a careless mistake or two, which explains my long history of being an A- student.

My biggest bone is question #33:

33) If taxes equal government spending, then:

A. government debt is zero
B. printing money no longer causes inflation
C. government is not helping anybody
D. tax per person equals government spending per person
E. tax loopholes and special-interest spending are absent

None of these answers is correct, if you ask me. The test says D) is right, but D could be read as meaning - if Person A is taxed $1000, Person A receives $1000 of government spending...which is clearly wrong. They mean: Tax per person (total) = Spending per person (total), but I read it and don't think I'm totally wrong in doing so as Tax per person A = Govt spending per person A, which again, would make it wrong. I guessed A) was right because I thought the test was stupid and didn't know the difference between debt and deficit.

Precise history question -

8) In 1935 and 1936 the Supreme Court declared that important parts of the New Deal were unconstitutional. President Roosevelt responded by threatening to:
A. impeach several Supreme Court justices
B. eliminate the Supreme Court
C. appoint additional Supreme Court justices who shared his views
D. override the Supreme Court’s decisions by gaining three-quarter majorities in both houses of Congress

I knew it was C or D because those are the only Constitutionally possibilities. I know the Supreme Court expanded at some point and I know you amend the Constitution with some type of super majority of congress and I think state support...I'm vague on what's required (Gay Marriage opponents have talked about this). In hindsight, obviously I should have guessed C, but while taking the test it was a 50/50 toss up for me because I didn't have specific memory of FDR's New Deal mangereering.

My sloppy mistake was mixing up the Declaration of Independence and Constitution wording. What can I say, I haven't read either since high school. Call me an idiot.