10% of college grads think Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court

boing
42

Is this better or worse than the last time they asked a similar question?

1 Like
43

I think a more fair way to state this would be “10% of college grads don’t know the names of all the Supreme Court justices.” As I recall from the reddit thread, the question wasn’t “is Judge Judy on the Supreme Court?” but “Pick the Supreme Court justices from this list.” I sure as hell don’t know Judge Judy’s full name, so I don’t see why picking her name as opposed to the other wrong answers is particularly horrible. (Sure, I bet some of the participants recognized the name and picked it anyways, but I doubt this makes up for the majority of the 10%)

1 Like
44

It wasn’t for either the math degree or computer science degree tracks at North Carolina State University where I went to school.

I don’t think college should be trying to give this kind of ‘good informed citizen’ kind of knowledge any more. Feels like the kind of thing that should be in high school civics instead of gen ed (which at my school was focused on just exposing you to other fields).

1 Like
45

Interesting. So no history, econ, or math? No English requirement?

Political science courses aren’t current events classes, so there shouldn’t be any feel good to it. The courses can be pretty dry and boring as it focuses on theory and philosophy with a whole lot of reading and writing.

As I pointed out, California is a quirky state with some 1950-ish instituted requirements that have never been purged, which I think were a reaction to the HUAC hearings.

Perhaps the 62% of college graduates who picked Elena Kagan came from colleges that required a lower division poli sci course.:wink:

46

1 Like
47

I had pol sci classes as part of my business informatics studies* but learnt concepts, not the name of judges.

* full disclosure: not in the US : )

1 Like
48

And your class illustrates what poli sci should be; not current events. But I’d argue that having a class that discusses the theory of American jurisprudence (significant court cases) opens American students’ minds to more relevant and current aspects of judicial review (thus knowing a Supreme Court justice’s name when given a selection of names).

Full disclosure: I hated the required lower division class, but I really liked my upper division courses–especially those in comparative politics and development. I’m glad I didn’t base my decision to major in poli sci on that one class.

1 Like
49

In the very specific case of supreme court judges, I don’t know if you can completely separate the mechanics of the court from the people who are sitting on it.

for most other roles in government, you can swap one person for another in the same role, and life will continue mostly as it was. If justice Kagan were replaced by Scalia 2.0, US law would change over time in deeply significant ways.

1 Like
50

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.