Students at Metropolitan State University in Denver struggled to answer basic questions about the structure of U.S. government — questions that were commonplace on an exam taken by 8th graders over 100 years ago.
Caleb Bonham, a reporter for Campus Reform, approached students at the Colorado campus to ask them whether they thought they were smarter than 8th graders in 1912 — the year this exam was given.
“You are more intelligent than, maybe, kids in the early 1900s?” asked Bonham.
“Yeah, dude,” replied one student.
But when quiz time came, today’s students fared poorly.
When asked, “What are the eligibility requirements to be president?” the students gave wildly inaccurate responses.
“You have to have a college education,” said one.
“You have to have a high school diploma, you have to be at least 25 years of age,” said another.
One woman replied simply — and perhaps sarcastically — that you have to be a man.
In fact, the U.S. Constitution requires only that prospective presidents be at least 35-years-old, natural born citizens and residents of the country for at least 14 years.
When asked to describe the manner in which the president and vice president are chosen — i.e., a nominating process, followed by a vote of the Electoral College — one student lapsed into an unintelligible rant about how President George W. Bush “just crashed it all.”
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