Hakluyt
07-04-2008, 02:00 PM
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We know little U.S. history, but even less Canadian, survey finds
Poll reveals 'shockingly bad' civic knowledge
Brendan Kennedy
The Ottawa Citizen
Friday, July 04, 2008
The average Canadian doesn't know much about American history -- and they know even less about Canada's past, according to a new poll commissioned by the Dominion Institute.
The 1,024 people surveyed by Ipsos Reid flunked the very basic quiz of Canadian and U.S. history and civics, but did slightly better on the American questions: respondents correctly answered 47 per cent of the questions about the U.S., compared with only 42 per cent of questions on Canada.
Dominion Institute executive director Marc Chalifoux called the results "shockingly bad" and "troubling."
"The way I read this poll is that Canadians did badly on both, but it's particularly shocking that we did worse on Canadian questions," he said.
The poll consisted of a 20-question, multiple-choice quiz, with 10 questions about Canada paired with 10 about the U.S. The questions ranged from who was the first prime minister of Canada and first president of the U.S. to national anthems and constitutional slogans.
The survey also asked respondents about the two countries' respective histories of women's suffrage.
"These are fundamental and basic parts of the tool kit that citizens need to function in a modern democracy," Mr. Chalifoux said.
"Understanding Canadian history -- understanding our shared civic traditions -- is really a basis for being effective citizens.
"For anyone who is concerned about civic literacy in Canada, this should ring alarm bells."
Mr. Chalifoux said the causes of the average Canadian's ignorance are complex, but pointed to the failures of the education system and the powerful influence of American pop culture as two major factors.
Jack Granatstein, a Canadian historian and research fellow at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, helped develop the questions for the survey.
"I looked for things that, frankly, would be so easy that no one could miss them," he said. "But obviously I overestimated the public knowledge."
Still, Mr. Granatstein said he was surprised by the survey's results. "But I shouldn't have been, because every test asking Canadians what they know about anything is always pretty depressing."
Mr. Granatstein also noted the influence of American pop culture as one of the potential reasons why Canadians know slightly more about American history, but he also said it is the responsibility of schools and parents to educate their children.
"It's just basic civic literacy," he said. "It's understanding a few things about this country and the way it functions. That's all. There's nothing in here that's particularly hard."
He said he appreciated the difficulties in getting young people interested in history, but said it's important for efforts to continue nonetheless.
"It's important primarily because we're taking huge numbers of immigrants from non-democratic societies and the country has a duty to, in effect, teach democracy to people that come from places that don't know what it is, and part of that is knowing how your society functions."
The survey was conducted between June 10 and 13, and the margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Canadians also generally scored lower than Americans did in a similar quiz conducted in 2001.
The Dominion Institute is a charitable organization founded in 1997 to improve Canadians' knowledge and appreciation of Canadian history.
To view the complete results of the poll, see www.dominion.ca.
- - -
The Questions
Highlights from "O Canada: Our Home and Naive Land," an Ipsos Reid/Dominion Institute history quiz:
- Two in 10 respondents correctly identified the Queen as Canada's head of state, compared to three-quarters who said George W. Bush was the U.S. head of state.
- Six in 10 respondents identified John A. Macdonald as Canada's first prime minister.
- Fewer than half of respondents identified "Peace, order and good government" as the slogan associated with Canada's Constitution, compared to two-thirds who knew "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" was associated with the U.S. constitution.
- Fewer than two in 10 respondents knew in which decade Canadian women were first given the right to vote.
- Less than a quarter of respondents knew William Lyon Mackenzie King was Canada's longest-serving prime minister.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
We know little U.S. history, but even less Canadian, survey finds
Poll reveals 'shockingly bad' civic knowledge
Brendan Kennedy
The Ottawa Citizen
Friday, July 04, 2008
The average Canadian doesn't know much about American history -- and they know even less about Canada's past, according to a new poll commissioned by the Dominion Institute.
The 1,024 people surveyed by Ipsos Reid flunked the very basic quiz of Canadian and U.S. history and civics, but did slightly better on the American questions: respondents correctly answered 47 per cent of the questions about the U.S., compared with only 42 per cent of questions on Canada.
Dominion Institute executive director Marc Chalifoux called the results "shockingly bad" and "troubling."
"The way I read this poll is that Canadians did badly on both, but it's particularly shocking that we did worse on Canadian questions," he said.
The poll consisted of a 20-question, multiple-choice quiz, with 10 questions about Canada paired with 10 about the U.S. The questions ranged from who was the first prime minister of Canada and first president of the U.S. to national anthems and constitutional slogans.
The survey also asked respondents about the two countries' respective histories of women's suffrage.
"These are fundamental and basic parts of the tool kit that citizens need to function in a modern democracy," Mr. Chalifoux said.
"Understanding Canadian history -- understanding our shared civic traditions -- is really a basis for being effective citizens.
"For anyone who is concerned about civic literacy in Canada, this should ring alarm bells."
Mr. Chalifoux said the causes of the average Canadian's ignorance are complex, but pointed to the failures of the education system and the powerful influence of American pop culture as two major factors.
Jack Granatstein, a Canadian historian and research fellow at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, helped develop the questions for the survey.
"I looked for things that, frankly, would be so easy that no one could miss them," he said. "But obviously I overestimated the public knowledge."
Still, Mr. Granatstein said he was surprised by the survey's results. "But I shouldn't have been, because every test asking Canadians what they know about anything is always pretty depressing."
Mr. Granatstein also noted the influence of American pop culture as one of the potential reasons why Canadians know slightly more about American history, but he also said it is the responsibility of schools and parents to educate their children.
"It's just basic civic literacy," he said. "It's understanding a few things about this country and the way it functions. That's all. There's nothing in here that's particularly hard."
He said he appreciated the difficulties in getting young people interested in history, but said it's important for efforts to continue nonetheless.
"It's important primarily because we're taking huge numbers of immigrants from non-democratic societies and the country has a duty to, in effect, teach democracy to people that come from places that don't know what it is, and part of that is knowing how your society functions."
The survey was conducted between June 10 and 13, and the margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Canadians also generally scored lower than Americans did in a similar quiz conducted in 2001.
The Dominion Institute is a charitable organization founded in 1997 to improve Canadians' knowledge and appreciation of Canadian history.
To view the complete results of the poll, see www.dominion.ca.
- - -
The Questions
Highlights from "O Canada: Our Home and Naive Land," an Ipsos Reid/Dominion Institute history quiz:
- Two in 10 respondents correctly identified the Queen as Canada's head of state, compared to three-quarters who said George W. Bush was the U.S. head of state.
- Six in 10 respondents identified John A. Macdonald as Canada's first prime minister.
- Fewer than half of respondents identified "Peace, order and good government" as the slogan associated with Canada's Constitution, compared to two-thirds who knew "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" was associated with the U.S. constitution.
- Fewer than two in 10 respondents knew in which decade Canadian women were first given the right to vote.
- Less than a quarter of respondents knew William Lyon Mackenzie King was Canada's longest-serving prime minister.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008