<p>Those kids know a LOT of things we don’t know.</p>
<p>And in 30 years time they will be just as condescending about the younger generation as we are now on CC.</p>
<p>This survey is filled with so many flaws it is hard to believe anyone would take the results with even a grain of salt. </p>
<p>We don’t know the response rate. The sample size is not representative of the entire population of high school students in Oklahoma. The survey was done by telephone which is asking for kids to give stupid answers just to mess with the interviewer. </p>
<p>Chances are, the response rate was ~20% and the only respondents were those ****ing with the interviewer for fun.</p>
<p>When my son was 4, former President Nixon died. On the day of his funeral, I hung out the American flag. (I am no Nixon fan, but I did it out of respect for the Office of the President.) </p>
<p>As we drove out of the house to take my son to pre-school, he asked me, “Why is the flag out?” </p>
<p>I said, “Because a former President died.” </p>
<p>He sounded horrified: “The President died?” </p>
<p>I reassured him, “No, President Clinton is fine. The man who was President when Mommy was a little girl died.” </p>
<p>He sounded relieved. “Oh, you mean George Washington.”</p>
<p><em>rim shot</em> </p>
<p>I’ve never felt so old…</p>
<p>Nate Silver of 538 has presented some compelling evidence that this pollster’s numbers are statistically irregular and possibly fraudulent. Looks like some of the posters in this thread had good instincts.</p>
<p>If this was a telephone interview, how did they know they were interviewing high school students? The responders could have been any age and fibbed about being in high school. I can’t imagine handing over my phone to one of my teenagers at the request of a strange telephone pollster. Even I might have pretended to be a high schooler in order to hear what the questions were going to be.</p>
<p>Lafalum, absolutely loved your post #23.</p>
<p>On a different subject, as one who went through the citizenship interview, I really think society would be better served if we were quizzed on things relevant to life today. I think it’s more valuable to know how to interpret traffic signs, fill out forms, and have enough skills and knowledge of English to land a job, than be aware of who our Senator is.</p>
<p>Those things are valuable, Dad<em>of</em>3, but if you become a citizen not understanding the basics of our system of government, then you would become an ignorant voter, and we already have way too many home-grown ignorant voters!</p>
<p>Over on FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver has been lambasting the pollster responsible for this study (not just because of this study, though he does have a post about it) for being incompetent, dishonest, and possibly producing fraudulent results.</p>
<p>[FiveThirtyEight:</a> Politics Done Right: strategic vision](<a href=“http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/search/label/strategic%20vision]FiveThirtyEight:”>http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/search/label/strategic%20vision)</p>