Ignorant America

Astounding info from the Newseum's 2015 survey of Americans' knowledge of the First Amendment and related issues. The organization polled 1,002 people and asked them if they could enumerate freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment.
Lowlights:
* Only 57 percent of those surveyed correctly identified freedom of speech as a right guaranteed in the First Amendment. That's down from 68 percent a year ago.
* Only 19 percent identified freedom of religion. That's down from 29 percent a year ago.
* One in three couldn't enumerate a single liberty mentioned in the First Amendment.
The year-over-year declines are baffling to me. And it's not the first time for these fluctuations. Any guesses as to why ignorance levels would change? I've got to assume the collection methods were the same.

% of respondents correctly identifying each as a guarantee of the First Amendment

 

Doesn't seem to be changing that much over the last 15 years.

My sense of it is a lot of people don't really give a shit. It doesn't affect their daily lives.

 

Yep. Nothing matters if it doesn't affect me. #America

 

Well, except for that jiggery-pokery stuff.

 

What the Constitution needs to get on the radar of average Americans is a reality show. Maybe a Celebrity Rights Swap kind of thing.

 

I don't know about these "facts." According to my Facebook feed, every other person is a Constitutional Law expert

 

A year-to-year drop in a sampling of 1,000 people seems more like a product of small sample size than an actual decline in the knowledge of the American people.

 

I think the answer to the dumbing down of America is more charter schools.