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First of all, there were basically no core requirements except two years of a foreign language, a writing course and 6 hours of a science or math. Then I transferred to the School of Architecture. I took no history at all. I entered college in 1972 and I attended UVA.

A few thoughts :

1) It seems that if there's a place where everyone should be taught good civics, it has to be in HIGH SCHOOL.

2) An excuse for this low scores can be made to say that --- the more concentrated you are in your own course of study (unrelated to US History, Civics or the American Economy), the more likely you are to forget what you learned in school. Hence, students from low scoring schools in top ranked colleges (e.g. the IVIES) might be so concentrated on solving bits and bytes problems, equations, electrons, human anatomy and the periodic table that such things as "Separation of Powers" never even cross their minds anymore.

3) The interesting phenomenon that can be observed from the study is this -- NEGATIVE LEARNING. One would at least expect a Senior not to unlearn the things he/she knows when he/she entered college. But the study seems to show that the higher they go, the lesser they know regarding civics. I note with dismay for instance the apalling knowledge displayed regarding judicial powers in this country ( no wonder we have judges legislating from the bench ). I think the PC and liberal influence in most of our campuses has a lot to do with this.

4) Finally, even if students were to be so focused on their respective courses in order to become a career architect, engineer, biochemist, doctor or what-have-you, they are still CITIZENS of this country. You would at least expect these educated kids to KNOW the principles and basis behind the foundation of United States of America.

Excellent thoughts. I agree that high school is the place to learn civics and history. My daughter went to a Christian high school and had a much better high-school education that I ever had. I had decent history classes which she also had, but she had much superior English Lit classes. I think that high schools should teach History and Civics a LOT more carefully.