Shots in the Dark

Thursday, 20 September

Are Harvard Students Ignorant?

The New York Sun reignites the debate over curriculum and citizenship, reporting that students at Harvard and elsewhere can not pass a test on basic American history. Students at many of the country's most prestigious colleges and universities are graduating with less knowledge of American history, government, and economics than they had as incoming freshmen, with Harvard University seniors scoring a "D+" average on a 60-question multiple-choice exam about civic literacy.

...At universities such as Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Duke, and Berkeley, seniors scored lower on the test, available here, than freshmen, living proof of the broadening relevancy of the old Harvard adage that the university is a storehouse of knowledge because "the freshmen bring so much and the seniors take away so little.

Here's the test. If Harvard students can't pass this thing, the university is really doing something wrong.....

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