Lack of knowledge cause for concern

By Jane Muhlstein

I was inspired to write this column by a game I played with friends this weekend. In the game, we drew the names of celebrities and described them to our team members who were to guess who we were describing.

There were few problems describing the movie stars and singers. Who doesn't know which singer/actress is engaged to Ben Affleck? When it comes to juicy, Hollywood scandals, we are all up on the gossip.

Unfortunately, many of us are not as informed when it comes to less glamorous characters. Several people at the table were not sure who Janet Reno was. Apparently the former attorney general, someone who affected our lives more than Jennifer Lopez ever will, is not worthy of notice.

Every day, we see glaring signs of how oblivious many Americans, especially young Americans, are to topics that should be areas of common knowledge. We may have mastered our major subjects, but that knowledge is no replacement for cultural literacy.

One of my favorite late-night segments is Jay Leno's "Jay Walking" on "The Tonight Show." In it, Leno takes to the streets to ask questions of random people that any eighth grader should be able to answer.

According to one man on a recent episode of The Tonight Show, Europe, England and Spain are the countries that make up Great Britain.

A group of people on another episode had a disagreement as to whether the Grand Canyon was in South Dakota, Utah or Nebraska.

I tried to tell myself that the people questioned were part of a small group. But in a battle of the sexes in a later episode, I was proven wrong.

After being asked where the Allies landed on D-Day, the group of college students concluded that they landed somewhere between Asia and Spain. The answers that followed were Russia, Jamaica and Denver.

An elementary school teacher in another episode told Leno that it was the Confederates who warned the Patriots that the British were coming.

How can people pursuing higher education not know basic facts about the founding of America?

Worse, how can an educator be unable to accurately describe historical facts from third grade social studies?

I realized something when I had to turn to my roommate during Leno to ask her who Benedict Arnold was.

We all have a lot of learning to do.