"Teenagers are stunningly Ignorant"

Oh boy, how depressing is this:

When did Columbus set sail for the New World? Who wrote The Canterbury Tales? In the Bible, what is Job known for? Who was Adolf Hitler?

These aren't exactly brainteasers, but when the new education-advocacy group Common Core posed these and 30 similar questions about history and literature to 1,200 17-year-old high-school students (below on the following four pages), it discovered that American teenagers are "stunningly ignorant."

Some of the blame is put on Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law, but teenagers were woefully ignorant before that as well. I blame it on these schools that are too big, too impersonal, and teachers who don't care.

The public high school my first two graduated from has close to 4000 students 9th-12 grade. It's like a Junior college. The school counselor was completely useless in getting them in college. Luckily one of my best friends is a counselor at a Catholic High School in Dallas, so she helped us through the process. The teachers are overwhelmed and teaching the TAKS test (the standardized test) takes way too much time.

It's sad that we are raising kids ignorant of our history, ignorant of the things that made this country great.