QUESTIONABLE RESEARCH
I was reading an AARP magazine and saw a small article about the lack of civics knowledge among American eighth graders. The magazine gave one example of the lack of knowledge. It claimed that a federal study showed that only 7% of eighth graders could describe the three branches of our government.
That statistic sounds like complete nonsense to me. When I was teaching eighth grade social studies, every one of my students could describe the three branches of government. I’m very tired of reading and hearing about these startling statistics that appear in so many news stories. The AARP article failed to mention the name of the study or any other information about it.
I hereby demand that any news organization that gives information about a scientific study needs to follow the rules of science. These are very basic rules that my sixth grade science students would know. Here are the