History, Ignorance and American University Students December 14, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Actualite , trackback
How well do American and European secondary schools train children in history? Beach is a world-weary type and so is rarely surprised by just how badly his students do: but he does sometimes find himself wondering whether we couldn’t do better. Here is a nice example of the low levels of general knowledge among university students, who have typically benefitted from at least five years of ‘proper’ history classes in their middle and high schools.
Two weeks ago Beach taught thirty-seven American university students (divided into two classes) about the Columbian exchange (aka 1492 and all that). This was the moment when the western and eastern hemisphere meet, after centuries apart. He began with the quiz below as a rubble clearing exercise, as this is a subject about which there are many misconceptions.
Students were all intelligent and this was an unusually well-motivated classes (by the anyway good standards of American students). The average age was 20: two mature students have been removed from the sample. The thirty-seven also took the quiz seriously because a prize was offered for the highest score, so the victors got kudos and chocolate. The questions were given orally, but Beach was very relaxed about rephrasing or even giving light clues and students were very relaxed about asking for clarifications: in fact, as chocolate was involved they pushed for all they were worth (and with c. twenty students in each class there was little shyness). Women were over-represented in the class (70%?): if the class had been 50% male the results would almost certainly have been poorer. Of the 37 students four were history majors. The history majors did not though cover themselves in glory. None were in the top three.
The questions follow. (Scroll down for the answers.) The key point is the numbers in brackets, signaling how many actually got the questions right. There should be no surprise and no outrage that students got (4) or (6) wrong: even university education seems not to have caught up with the fact that the world has not been flat for a couple of thousand years (save a late antique blip). (3) is arcane knowledge, perhaps that is even true of (1). Beach finds, though, the lack of correct answers for (2), (5), (7) and (8) depressing. Perhaps particularly because these were American students? There is, incidentally, the idea that European students have better general knowledge. Beach’s experience is that European students have better knowledge about Europe. British or Spanish students would have done just as badly and probably have been less constructive in actually doing the quiz: American students are extraordinarily courteous.
Other thoughts: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
1) What area do we refer to when we talk about ‘the old world’? (5/37)
2) What was the first well documented Old World settlement in the New World (not including Amerindian settlement)? (8/37)
3) Is it quicker in a sail boat to go from Florida to Ireland or from Ireland to Florida? (20/37)
4) Among learned Europeans was the world believed to be a globe or flat: i) AD 0, ii) AD 500, iii) AD 1491? (0/37)
5) Where was Christopher Columbus born? (3/37)
6) Why was Columbus the first person to sail west in search of the Indies? (0/37)
7) What other great European discovery took place around the time of Columbus’ discovery? (1497) (1/37)
8) Who was the first European to definitely say that the Americas were not Asia? (4/37)
Answers: 1) Euro-Asia and Africa; 2) Norse or Viking settlement (also accepted Icelandic, Danish etc) – also stressed that there were lots of theories but I was interested in universally accepted facts, favourite answer ‘Phoenicians’; 3) Quicker to go from Florida to Ireland (ok a guess will do it); 4) globe, globe, globe (I gave half a point for globe, flat, globe given that there was a minority Christian flat earth opinion in late antiquity); 5) Genoa or Italy (the vast majority of students put Spain, which does represent some knowledge); 6) because he believed the world was smaller; 7) the Portuguese circumnavigated Africa and found a sea route to India, 1497 (about ten students put ‘discovered Australia); 8) Amerigo Vespucci (there is some debate but given that only four answered Amerigo this was not a class that was interested in minority opinions).
22 Dec 2015: Norm K writes in ‘On the #6. There is some well founded evidence that CC knew that the Western sea was close enough to sail to from both Irish and Basque fishermen who were harvesting the Grand Banks. The Portuguese had the African coast tied up. It might not have been healthy to go that way. I suspect the smaller earth bit was a fiction he concocted to gather funds. On the topic of history and students. Some people are just bad at it. I had a 7th grader once who was a 4.00 in all her course work but could not put the US on a black line map. She could answer the human questions without error but the map study part was a blank for the poor dear. I threw out the map part as it was a defect in her brain process from what I could ascertain. I have a niece at Georgetown who is a doctor in training, she would flunk your test, I’m sure. For those of us who love history, it seems strange that smart students could be pitiful at putting the past in order. The best natural history students are the ones who can remember details of person and place from early childhood, it is like they are hardwired for digesting history and geography and blending the two. I did a project in school with a Greek bridge painter. A class presentation on teaching the 1492 story. This man, a social studies major knew nothing about the discovery legend. He was the poster child for flunking out the lug heads. He got through. He is painting bridges today. The teacher’s union sent him on his way halfway through his first year teaching. Painting bridges pays over a hundred grand a year, he did not put up much of a fight.’ Thanks, Norm!
