"Who is Ted Cruz?"
I received a number of answers, from a "Roman Catholic," to "the brother of Tom Cruise," but no correct answers. Even a few of the adults were shaky as to the identity of Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz is, of course, the senator from Texas who just today finished his lengthy filibuster to protest Obamacare. Which, given this is somewhat headline news, one would expect folks to be familiar with it. That was just not the case.
This prompted me to run upstairs in the afternoon and toss a pop quiz at the older students. I asked 5 questions:
1) Who is the Vice-President of the United States?
2) Who is the Secretary of State?
3) Who is the Governor of the State of Maine?
4) Who was the president during the Civil War?
5) How many states (excluding territories) are in the "United States?"
The responses were amazing and horrifying. Twelve students took this pop quiz.
For question number 1, only one student answered correctly (Joe Biden). The rest were "IDK's" (I don't know). Question number 2 had zero correct answers, with one student answering "Hillary Clinton," and the rest answering "I don't know."Paul Lepage is our state governor, and spelling errors aside, half of the students answered (guessed?) correctly.
During the Civil War, I was certain Abraham Lincoln was president, but most (except 1) thought George Washington was.
Thankfully, everybody was certain there were 50 states in the United States.
I then pondered in my office for a bit, and then ran back up to the classroom and posed a few more questions.
1) Name the quarterback for the New England Patriots.
2) Who is Babe Ruth?
3) Who is Toby Keith?
4) Who is Mariah Carey?
5) What is the last movie you watched?
Now, I will note that these were taken anonymously to protect the ignorant, but, without producing the statistics, I will tell you that the students fared much better on the second (culturally-oriented) pop quiz. This is a rather small segment of people to be drawing some broad-brush conclusions, but I would venture to say the following thoughts are reasonable (albeit hasty).
Thought #1
-Our children know much, much more about pop culture than history.
Thought #2
-Our children will tend to orient and invest themselves toward the things that they see are important in our families and their immediate culture, i.e. sports, entertainment, hunting, cars, etc.
Thought #3
-A child's interest in the things of God tend to be relative toward the interest they perceive in their families and immediate culture. (Proverbs 22:6)
Concluding Question...
What do you really want your children to know? Does it really matter and do you really care? Is the identity and person of Tom Brady or Joe Biden more important than knowing the identity and person of Jesus Christ?
You only have so long before they are adults.
