ONLY 26% of Americans know the 3 BRANCHES of govt?!

Having spent most of my adult life in academia until about 10 years ago, understanding education, particularly science education, has been a huge focus of my interest there. So does anyone remember that awkward moment that occurred on the QVC shopping channel? Let's take a look at the transcript [1].

1. Shawn Killinger It almost kinda looks like what the Earth looks like when you're a bazillion miles away from the planet Moon -
2. Isaac Mizrahi Yes, I just squinted at it.
3. Shawn Killinger From the planet, Moon. From THE Moon, looking back at the Earth.
4. Isaac Mizrahi Yes, from the planet, Moon.
5. Shawn Killinger Isn't the Moon a star?
6. Isaac Mizrahi No, the moon is a planet, darling.
7. Shawn Killinger The sun is a star - is the Moon really a planet?
8. Isaac Mizrahi The Moon is a planet, honey.
9. Shawn Killinger Don't look at me like that - the sun is a star!
10. Isaac Mizrahi It's a planet!
11. Shawn Killinger Is the sun not a star?
12. Isaac Mizrahi I don't know what the sun is.
13. Shawn Killinger The sun is a star.
14. Isaac Mizrahi We don't know what the sun is.
15. Shawn Killinger The sun IS a star....the moon is not a planet.
16. Isaac Mizrahi THE MOON IS A PLANET!
17. Shawn Killinger I knew it! You were trying to take me down that road - the moon is NOT a planet
18. Isaac Mizrahi Excuse me? Chunky - if you're listening to me, you have to Google the moon and-
19. Shawn Killinger I can guarantee you someone is googling right now.
20. Isaac Mizrahi The moon is such a planet, I can't even stand it.
21. Shawn Killinger The moon is NOT a planet.
22. Isaac Mizrahi What else is it if it's not a planet?
23. Some Poor Production Assistant Desperately Trying To Explain Basic Science To These Two Dunderheads It's a MOON!
24. Shawn Killinger I believe it's a star, or it's something.
25. Isaac Mizrahi It's a MOON. It's a moon.
26. Shawn Killinger Didn't you do that thing in grade school where you had to name the planets, and there was Uranis [sic], and there was Saturn, and the one with the rings, and the Earth....the moon is never in there, dude, it's not a planet!
27. (Pause)
28. Shawn Killinger Alright, here look - this is key lime.
29. Isaac Mizrahi I don't know. I don't know what it is beside - what is it - a baseball or something? What is it - cheese? C'mon, it's a planet!
30. Shawn Killinger I feel like sometimes - though I AM educated - I expose during the show that this "blonde" of mine....could be real.
31. (Pause, someone whispers what the moon is to Isaac)
32. Isaac Mizrahi Okay it's a satellite.
33. Shawn Killinger The moon is what?
34. Isaac Mizrahi A natural satellite.
35. Shawn Killinger The moon is a "natural satellite"? What does that mean?
36. Isaac Mizrahi But things live on it, that means it's a planet. [Just for the record: No, nothing lives on the Moon. -EAJ]
37. Shawn Killinger Is that what Google said? No, I don't like that. I don't even know what it means.
38. Isaac Mizrahi Me neither.

Especially for all its comedic value, this is a great moment in science education and not an end-of-the-world, we're-all-doomed, go-running-for-the-hills-ma, moment. Let me explain. Back in the day, before the printing press, everything that was written down for posterity was checked for quality control by many people, not the least of which including the very transcribers of the material. Enter the printing press. While enabling historical giants like Martin Luther, let's not forget errors came to be expected and erratas frequently accompanied the manuscripts [2]. These typos would include the meaning of words and interpretation of ideas. The point here is that the less scripted people are, the more errors that are going to be present in their written/performing products. With minimal scripting, QVC should be expected to be full of technical errors. Its viewers are watching people be people, talking, and not necessarily accurately. If they keep at it, including assistance from the crew and the recently-graduated model in the background (the featured image), eventually they'll get to the correct answer.

Fast forward to our modern education system, which is frequently misunderstood. If Ms. Killinger and Mr. Mizrahi were handed a multiple-choice exam, I'm 75% certain they would get the correct answer. The point is NOT "What are the correct labels for various interplanetary objects" but rather "WHY are the various interplanetary objects given those labels". What you see here is what they did and didn't gain from school. They did not gain an initial understanding of why various labels were applied in science. What they did gain was a really awkward way of inquiry: to determine that here was a topic of passing interest in which they did not have a firm grasp as to the necessary labels to discuss it and here's why they were confused. Why it splattered across the news was because we PUT astronauts ON the moon. And everyone in this country at least should understand those labels. HOW WAS IT POSSIBLE FOR THESE PEOPLE GRADUATE FROM SCHOOL WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THE LABELS?

Indeed. And things have not changed much. Here in this country in particular we have education-management businesses driving towards more multiple choice testing, automated short answer grading (to wit a keyword check), textbook provided class curriculum for online instruction to reduce teaching to rote memorization (no more expensive teachers skilled in education required), and other unproven techniques to "measure" education*. Part of one's education is HOW to learn, the drive and interest in pursuing answers, and moving beyond memorization of labels/people/events/dates into WHY.

Look at that conversation from QVC again. They're asking why the Moon isn't a planet? What I recognized in the discussion was that they had forgotten the memorized labels taught in grade-school and had moved on to attempting to assemble news stories (for better or worse) into a coherent whole. We just saw a huge division among scientists about Pluto. The Moon is much bigger than Pluto, one of the points made against its being a planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The Moon is relatively close in size to Mercury, hence why studies of Mercury are constantly compared to the Moon despite the fact they have almost NOTHING in common. What makes a planet a planet and a satellite a satellite? Over half of the awkwardness in this conversation is that the participants are aware from the reactions around them that they've really blundered. Well, it's embarrassing, but I don't think they did blunder that much at all. It's unscripted and entertaining live-action learning. I think it's great.

In answer to the questions in their dialogue, for your information: a "planet" orbits the Sun (which is a star because of its fusion reaction), and a "natural satellite" orbits a planet. But then we have asteroids. Why isn't Ceres a planet? Go talk to the IAU, because I frankly think that it should be. Want to get scientists arguing? Ask them the difference between asteroids and comets. Voilà!

So lets get to the academic that wrote up the editorial published in Bill Moyer's blog from whom we have drawn the title of this article [3]. He cites that we're all vulnerable to fake news because our education system is churning out students that don't take civics classes, see the Annenberg Public Policy Survey: ONLY 26% OF AMERICANS KNOW THE 3 BRANCHES OF GOVT!

When I read that, I thought about the time I was handed a copy of a copy of a hand scribbled rough representation of the US (not Canada or Mexico) and told to label the bodies of water around it. I couldn't figure out the shapes of what I was looking at and ended up putting the Gulf of Mexico on the scribble that had been apportioned for the Atlantic seaboard. RUN FOR THE HILLS, MA, KIDS ARE GRADUATING HONORS FROM HIGH SCHOOL AND DON'T KNOW WHERE THE GULF OF MEXICO IS! Some people really need to calm down and take a breath. Later, when I was teaching undergrads, had a top-of-her-class student ask me which lines were longitude versus latitude. When I reflected on where I learned that, truly learned it...was in Girl Scouts...I remembered why: because we had to use it and understand it in backpacking.

So, at the time I read the Moyer's blog article about all these civics-uneducated Americans, I called out to my daughter who was getting a haircut, "Honey? What are the 3 branches of government?"

She blinked at me in confusion for a minute having been interrupted in the middle of story she was telling Liz, the woman cutting her hair. "Um, President, Congress, House of Representatives?" she replied.

"Okay, House of Representatives is a part of Congress. Try again," I answered. My daughter reads avidly a lot of unusual books about history. She knows. The difference was that no one had ever presented that exact question to her.

"The part of the government that has the FBI?" she asked.

I shook my head, "That's all under 'Executive'."

"Judiciary," whispered one of the hairdressers.

The light turned on. "Oh! I knew that, and I even took 'Law Enforcement' last year," my daughter exclaimed, somewhat embarrassed.

I sat back and smiled. Everyone knows that one way or another. The world wasn't coming to an end, and the design of that survey "Needs Improvement". Perhaps a better way of remembering the "3 branches of government" is that one creates law, one enacts law, and another interprets law.

References (I'm a fark.com news reader...apologies for the sources)

Note: Image of the QVC model covering her face in reaction to the discussion enhanced by Wonkette (warning that the blog itself contains adult language and references): img.wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/QVC-model.jpg

*For a detailed look at the business of education, this is a good resource but uses adult language and references (Pearson provides curriculum for college courses as well, not just K-12, and its use is increasing): www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6lyUR...

[1] These QVC Hosts Actually Argued Whether the Moon Was a Planet or a Star (RIP Science), by Andrew Bridgman, College Humor, September 29, 2017 http://www.collegehumor.com/po...

[2] A Corrected History of the Typo, by Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic, Jun 26, 2014 https://www.theatlantic.com/te...

[3] How Fake News Works: Tens of Millions of Americans Would Flunk Any Basic Civics Class, By David Masciotra, Moyers & Company, November 8, 2017 http://billmoyers.com/story/fa...