US Citizenship Test

After taking the “Constitution Quiz,” I was very disappointed. Not only did I earn a 6/10 on the quiz, but I noticed a relatively low score of 7/10 for the state of California. Considering my performance in school and love for American history, I was embarrassed. I truly believe that this is a legitimate reflection on society’s horrible job of teaching the youth about the government in which they are under. Up until this point in the educational system, we students have not been exposed to the study of our own government or that of any other governmental system. Our knowledge dwindles past the obvious three branches of the U.S. government. Compared to other countries, we are far behind. I traveled to Japan this summer

Citizenship in Athens and Rome has similarities and differences. Being a citizen is being a native or naturalized member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to its government. Being a citizen meant different things in each empire. The relationship between the citizen and their nation varied from their system of citizenship. Rome had a better system of citizenship because they were more open to who they allowed citizenship, they gave people they conquered citizenship, and personal grudges, judgements about others/topics would not affect the Empire.

One reason why Americans shouldn’t be required to vote is because voting without background information might lead to wrong decisions. Evidence supporting this reason is, in document G (New York Times) (Randy Cohen) states that people that are uninformed, will end up voting for something that doesn’t endorse their interests. This evidence helps explain

The concept of citizenship and its general approach in different eras by Michael Schudson has been such a topic for debate, given with the notion of how society today tend to define the distinct ideal “citizen” and its origins in America while comparing them to various nations around the world to see how each differs from the other while indicating that an informed citizen in a mass democracy has thus far been insufficient. He gave some examples in an earlier in an American democracy that an informed citizen did not in fact require much in society, with only traits such as loyalty and regularity being the most sought after; elections through education in an effort by “Mugwumps” (a term used to describe Republican political activists who left

The Abington School District v. Schempp (374 U.S. 203 (1963)), Wisconsin v. Yoder (406 U.S. 205 (1972)), and Amback v. Norwick, 441 v. 68 (1979)) cases discuss how and why education, to some degree, is necessary to prepare citizens to participate in our political system.

For one, immigration policies might be important when it comes to a family without papers, while financial aid and tax reform might be important to another. Regardless of the situation, one’s consciousness is affected when one does not vote, even if they do not realize it. Everyone is different, that is why personal involvement in the voting polls is one of the most important things one can do to contribute to their own life in the United States, but along with self-thinking, there is also a larger role that takes place by voting.

The people that create the exam, tried to upgrade and make it more difficult, but ended up making it easier. Nevertheless in Origins of the Naturalization Civics Test, United States Citizen and Immigration Service states, ”the INS moved to eliminate “trick” questions, such as “how high is the Bunker Hill Monument,” (USCIS). The quote demonstrates that United States Citizen and Immigration Service tried to make the test a bit hard, but with the right studying it wouldn’t be any harder than it was before. The questions can be in the internet books and more we’re required find them, so even if it is a tricky question we can still apprehend. Another example of this reason is when, United States Citizen and Immigration Service states, “When knowledge of U.S. history and civics finally became an explicit requirement for naturalization, the test remained primarily an oral quiz” (USCIS). The quote explains they are trying to tell us that with our education, we can pass the exams with no difficulties. Our knowledge is what’s is going to help us pass the test, considering it’s already easy. Additionally, Hana Layson and Daniel Greene states, “There have always been two primary paths to U.S. citizenship: One is through being born in the United States. The other is through naturalization, the legal process by which individuals apply for and are admitted to citizenship. ” (Layson, Greene).The quote explains how there are two paths to becoming a citizen and that’s

In October of 2015, Calvin Christian High School’s Advanced Placement (AP) Government class conducted a poll in Walker, Michigan to better understand the citizens’ political views. The government class’s twelve students collaborated over the course approximately two weeks to create an unbiased poll with concise demographic questions and current political issues. The twelve students broke down into groups of four to formulate questions. After researching current topics and forming the questions, the class carefully critiqued each question to prevent bias, incoherency, or redundancy. After going through the long list of questions, the class voted, and nine questions were selected, and thus transferred to the official poll. The last step in

By making civic competence a central aim, the curriculum can emphasize the importance of educating students who are committed to the ideas and values of democracy. An understanding of civic ideals and practices is critical to full participation in society and is an essential component of education for citizenship. For example since civic competence has to rests on the commitment to democratic values, it requires that citizens have the ability to use their knowledge about their community, nation, and world to derive solution and solve real problems.

Intro-The average American voter. Typically the claim or reason a person votes is because of agreement with a candidate or policy. General knowledge about the issues in this country and current running candidates is extremely abundant. As I mentioned voters will vote for a politician who they believe “knows” how to fix these issues. Yet in a recent Newsweek survey 1,000 random U.S. citizens were asked to take America’s ‘official’ citizenship test, 29 percent could not name the vice president. 73 percent could not identify why we fought the Cold War. 44 percent were unable to define what the Bill of Rights are, and 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar. If American people/voters cannot even identify

With civic engagement development being initiated nationwide, we must attempt to understand citizenship in today’s world. Citizenship is often a misunderstood concept.

“A student body must be composed of more than students who do well on a test. A standardized achievement test cannot measure intangibles such as a candidate's drive and individual determination” (Spiegler, 2013). Since the mid-1800s, high stakes testing has been an enormous part of American education. In the American education system, the lack of success have been held accountable on the increasing levels in poverty, universal use of high stakes testing, and quality of teachers. High stakes testing demonstrates bias against women and categories of socioeconomic variety. The SAT and ACT are unfair because wealthier citizens can afford tutors to assist students with test tips and higher scores on the exams. While in the process of applying for

I am a Chinese immigrant, and I have been New York six years already. In here, I spend lots of time to learn English and adapt the cultures. Even my language is not as good as a native speaker, but I still want to be an American here. Therefore, I am planning to become a US citizen within two years, before I graduate college. In this six years, I started from learning alphabetical in high school. Because of my language problem, I didn’t have a good GPA in high school. It made me upset. After I graduate high school, I didn’t go to college, because I thought, even I went to college at that time, I won’t have good score and achievement. I won’t spend too much time and concentrated on study. Therefore, in the year after I graduated, I went to

Granting United States citizenship to children of illegal aliens is one problem that needs to be solved. Many pregnant illegal immigrant women wait to cross into the United States until they are ready to deliver their child (Roleff). They are seeking to gain citizenship for their child so that the mother also will gain the right to immigrate to this country. Chain migration is another concern for immigration laws. This is when married sons or daughters, or married sisters or brothers' permits the spouses' extended families to immigrate to the country. So, for

The knowledge of American government today is very low which is why the citizenship should be earned, taking a closer look if all US citizens took the test, a majority would not have earned their citizenship. Society today has changed where more Americans are able to name a judge on American Idol than a justice of the Supreme Court. The governmental knowledge of American citizens today is not very high because entertainment has taken over. It should be a requirement that all US citizens take the citizenship test and learn the knowledge needed, the same way immigrants have to study and know the information to become a