Citizenship test to pass high school?

Arizona is the first state to make it mandatory to pass a citizenship test to get a H.S. Diploma or GED.

I love this idea and wished it was policy for years. I find some reactions in the article weird, though. For one, the civics teacher who complains it will take away from class time. Uh, dude, isn't this test what you are supposed to be teaching already?? Other detractors seem to be of the "don't test students for anything" camp.

Quote: AZDuffman

Arizona is the first state to make it mandatory to pass a citizenship test to get a H.S. Diploma or GED.

I love this idea and wished it was policy for years. I find some reactions in the article weird, though. For one, the civics teacher who complains it will take away from class time. Uh, dude, isn't this test what you are supposed to be teaching already?? Other detractors seem to be of the "don't test students for anything" camp.

I'm uncomfortable with it because then schools curriculum would be totally geared to passing the test.
Too pass the test is just memorization.
I would rather high schools concentrate on an overall education concentrating on writing communication skills, computer skills, problem solving math skills ect.to prepare students for real world jobs.

Quote: terapined

I'm uncomfortable with it because then schools curriculum would be totally geared to passing the test.
Too pass the test is just memorization.

No offense but I have to call B.S. here as I do when any instructor or student says, "it's just memorization." Lots of life is memorization. For example:

You cannot learn long division properly unless you have memorized your times tables.
If worked in an auto tune-up shop you had to know which V-8s have a firing order of 1-8-4-3-6-2-7-5 and which are 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2
If you deal craps you have to memorize odds for place bets and free-odds bets.

Basically, to say "it is just memorization so it is useless" to me is to say, "I am too lazy to learn it."

Quote:

I would rather high schools concentrate on an overall education concentrating on writing communication skills, computer skills, problem solving math skills ect.to prepare students for real world jobs.

This would be nice except that schools are not doing it now, have never done it, and never will be able to do it under the current model. If you want objective standards there will have to be *gasp* tests!

When I wanted to apply pesticides the state tested me, and it was much memorization. I couldn't say, "hey, this memorization is useless. Shouldn't I learn how to solve problems?" The state wanted to see what I knew. Thus a test.

plus 1

Students who fail the test should be considered illegal aliens and deported at once to the nearest hell hole.

Quote: AZDuffman

No offense but I have to call B.S. here as I do when any instructor or student says, "it's just memorization." Lots of life is memorization. For example:

You cannot learn long division properly unless you have memorized your times tables.
If worked in an auto tune-up shop you had to know which V-8s have a firing order of 1-8-4-3-6-2-7-5 and which are 1-9-4-3-6-5-7-2

9? :)

Some of school should be memorization, and certainly civics should be, as it's about how you operate in the country, and gives you an understanding of the palce you live in and where it comes from.

Most of my friends joke I know more about Canada than they do... but I find that a little sad that I know what's on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and they don't.

School should also teach critical thinking, and problem solving, but to do that, you do need a base level of knowledge to think critically about. You should test, but you should also allow growth. Life is full of tests, and you'll fail some of them.

By the way, I did not vote bigot :-)

Quote: TheCesspit

9? :)

Ooops!

Quote:

Some of school should be memorization, and certainly civics should be, as it's about how you operate in the country, and gives you an understanding of the palce you live in and where it comes from.

School should also teach critical thinking, and problem solving, but to do that, you do need a base level of knowledge to think critically about. You should test, but you should also allow growth. Life is full of tests, and you'll fail some of them.

A problem in society is people want to do the "fun stuff" and skip the work that comes with it. Some things take memorization or practice. My job requires lots of critical thinking, but I also had to memorize L-M-N-R-T as key letters to get to the critical thinking. There was no "test" on it but the "test" was that you get your job done or you don't work.

Quote: terapined

By the way, I did not vote bigot :-)

Methinks that thou protests too much ;)

It sounds unnecessary to me. As far as I know, government or civics classes are required in high school already, and presumably you have to pass your classes in order to graduate.

I know some states do testing for graduation, like New York's Regents exams, but most don't.