75 per cent of Oklahoma students can't name first US President

According to a new survey released today by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, only one in four Oklahoma high school students can correctly name the first President of the United States of America.

Brandon Dutcher of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, a Conservative think-tank, wanted to get an understanding of general civic knowledge among high school students in the state and what the institute found was astonishing. The ten questions were directly taken from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services exam that a person must write if they want to become a US citizen. Thousands of students were given the ten question exam and the results were quite disappointing, while 92 per cent of immigrants who take the test pass on their first try, according to data from the immigration services. More than 75 per cent of the students could not name the first President of the United States, while only 14 per cent knew who wrote the Constitution and more than half did not know the two political parties. Dutcher explained that this problem is just not evident in Oklahoma but in many states such as Arizona. Thomas Jefferson once said, "A nation can't expect to be ignorant and free." Dutcher thinks this is a real problem, "It points to a real serious problem. We're not going to remain ignorant and free." According to News 9, the results are as followed (the percentages of students who answered correctly): What is the supreme law of the land? 28 What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution? 26 What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress? 27 How many justices are there on the Supreme Court? 10 Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? 14 What ocean is on the east coast of the United States? 61 What are the two major political parities in the United States? 43 We elect a U.S. senator for how many years? 11 Who was the first President of the United States? 23 Who is in charge of the executive branch? 29