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The new axis of evil — Canada: One third of American 8th graders think Canadians live in a dictatorship


thejazz97

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Came across this story, thought I'd share it. Give me a lul.

It’s a looping belt of tyranny that swoops from the South Pacific to Europe and all the way across the Americas. It controls three of the world’s 12 largest economies and the entire global supply of some key resources. It is, in the eyes of the world’s most important, and perhaps only relevant, demographic, a new axis of autocracy and it isn’t centred in Pyongyang, Tehran or Harare but in Canberra, Paris and, yes, Ottawa.

That demographic, of course, is the American teen. And if new U.S. test results are any sign, that all important group doesn’t think highly of us, if it thinks of us at all.

In recent results from the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress — billed as the Nation’s Report Card — fully 33 per cent of American 8th graders said Canada, Australia and France are dictatorships of one kind or another.

Asked on a national standardized test what the current governments of the three countries have in common, 23 per cent of the 29,000 teens tested chose “they have leaders with absolute power” from the four options available. Another 10 per cent chose “they are controlled by the military” while 12 per cent picked “they discourage participation by citizens in public affairs.”

Fifty four per cent chose the right answer: They have constitutions that limit their power.

It would be simple, and perhaps correct, to dismiss those results, released in late April, as irrelevant to Canadians. After all, 54 per cent isn’t that bad. Only 23 per cent of teens scored at or above proficient on the civics portion of the test in 2014, from which that question was drawn; only 18 per cent did the same for U.S. history.

It might be more a case, in other words, of broad ignorance than it is a Maple Leaf-shaped blind spot in the American middle-school psyche.

One academic, however, believes the question and its answers should be cause for some concern, and not just about the U.S. education system. Kenneth Holland, a professor at Ball State University and the president of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, thinks they might be indicative of a larger failure to educate Americans about a key ally and trading partner.

“I think there’s a broader problem and that is that Americans know very little about Canada,” he said.

Holland doesn’t think the problem is likely to get better any time soon, either. The Canadian government used to fund a program called “Understanding Canada” that provided grants to academics studying Canada around the world. “One purpose of those grants was to provide professional development for K-12 teachers,” Holland said. The federal government eliminated that program in 2012, however. “So there really is very little money now to train teachers who teach those middle schoolers,” he said.

What knowledge American teens do have of Canada is mostly limited to pop culture and a vague idea of Quebec separatism and Mounties, Holland believes. So when the 8th graders chose absolute power or military dictatorship on the test, they likely did so more out of ignorance than any specific knowledge of Stephen Harper or Tony Abbott.

For Holland, though, that is problem unto itself. “Canada is a very important ally of the United States,” he said. “You can see that all over the world right now. Ukraine, Iraq, Syria: Canada is right there fighting alongside the United States.”

That so many American teens think such a close ally is a civilian or military dictatorship — akin to the dastardly French, no less — is, to him, a significant worry. What it isn’t, though, is reason to believe Americans think our actual government, the one with a Parliament in Ottawa, no matter how neutered its members may be, is the next North Korea. It just means they have no idea about our actual government at all.


Read more: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-new-axis-of-evil-canada-one-third-of-american-8th-graders-think-we-live-in-a-dictatorship#ixzz3b50FH7SL

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As long as they can't find us on a map, Canada will be ok.

Seriously though, why worry about a bunch of teenagers who are to busy trying to get some action and playing x-box to be concerned about foreign affairs?

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This was an optional survey as it had no impact on their grades. You are going to have students that don't care. Also, the actual question was not specifically stating if they (Canada, Australia, etc...) were a dictatorship, but rather gave choices that implied this. They had a much higher chance of choosing a dictatorship response (every incorrect answer) than the one right choice.

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This was an optional survey as it had no impact on their grades. You are going to have students that don't care. Also, the actual question was not specifically stating if they (Canada, Australia, etc...) were a dictatorship, but rather gave choices that implied this. They had a much higher chance of choosing a dictatorship response (every incorrect answer) than the one right choice.

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Never mind that a lot of unpopular NeoCon policies have been brought down us rather undemocratically. We voted them in, yes, but they've not gotten a mandate for quite a lot of what they've done over the years. If truly held to account, they'd be out long ago.

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One third of Canadian 8th graders don't understand how the American political system works either. But thanks for the pointless article.

Pretty much this

At the eighth grade level that might be true, but as people age into later high school and adults, with the amount of coverage the American Presidential Election gets, I'd say most Canadians know how the American political system works, at least at the federal level,

I wouldn't say the same about Americans. How much TV time or print space do you think goes to the Canadian Federal Election in the States? I'd wager not very much. At least proportionally far less than what we get for their election.

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One third of Canadian 8th graders don't understand how the American political system works either. But thanks for the pointless article.

Source?

I remember learning about many countries in elementary/Junior High Social Studies and who the "leader" was, President, Prime Minister, King, etc...

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Try the revolvy quiz on US State Capitals, I scored 9/12, I'm sure that was better than most Americans could do. The average American, couldn't tell you the 10 Provinces, let alone the capitals. We were taught US of A history in Social Studies back in the day.

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Source?

I remember learning about many countries in elementary/Junior High Social Studies and who the "leader" was, President, Prime Minister, King, etc...

They don't want to teach that anymore. With the resources available you can check stuff out and it's speculated that alot of those kings, presidents, prime ministers, etc are believed to be blood related...it makes you question these "democracies". Although if you trace back bloodlines far enough everyone is probably related eventually lol and some of that is just conspiracy bs.

All in all it would be nice if in every country that votes, that all candidates ran as independants, force the voter to know more, in saying that though, I don't think this ignorance is exclusively held to the states. I think probably the younger generation in most places is probably like that. Cell phones, Facebook, celebrities, etc.. Are much higher priority than knowledge these days. Canada is no longer exempt, we're not really different from the states anymore.

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They are brain washing kids so they can invade Canada and steal our resources.

The U.S. already gets the majority of them. As just one example, canada is the #1 exporter of oil to the U.S. Canada supplies the labour and ships it cheaply to the U.S.

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The U.S. already gets the majority of them. As just one example, canada is the #1 exporter of oil to the U.S. Canada supplies the labour and ships it cheaply to the U.S.

But it's our water that we don't want to sell you.

That's going to be the main issue going forward.

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