how did they do the test? we have 16 states in germany and it's pretty easy and i'm sure i even know all american ones but i believe i would forget one or so if i have to write them down. and then i would realize i forgot one and wouldn't find which one because ..yeah that would be a long list hard to find what's missing.

if it was with a map only with borders i think it would be easy

As a student that came from private school and ended up in public school, this is accurate.

Btw, shot in the dark, it's been years, Federal, Executive, and Judicial.

EDIT: Knew that was wrong. Turns out, it's Legislative. I can name all 50 states plus all the US territories though.

A map... with the state's border's... and they still did bad...

who cares, I can't name most of my cousins and I see them everyday

I have a relative who has a high school diploma and cannot read. Its not like he could fake it either, you could look at him from thirty feet away and conclude that he was illiterate. On his best day he reads at maybe a first or second grade level and somehow he graduated.

That is why I am all about school choice in the US. We have dumped more and more money in to public schools in this country and haven't gained anything.

It is a crime the type of education given to those who can't afford to attend a good school district or private school.

This is what you get when you cut educational funding (or redirect funds to the football team :/)

Executive, legislative and judicial. I like to think of them as The Head, The Shoulders, and the Heart. My weakness is spelling, but I somehow typed all three without Firefox correcting me.

Anyway, kids don't bother remembering stuff they don't feel they need to. Most people don't feel they need to know how the government works so long as it doesn't get in their way. But if everyone was angry at the government they'd learn real quick. I work in a county planning department and I see people who have intimate knowledge of government bureaucracy. When someone needs a permit and pay a fee to put up a fence or sell half their property, they study how to get around the walls the government puts up.

My point is, kids don't need to know the branches of government unless they want a good grade on a social studies test. Sometime after high school after those kids are paying taxes and own property they will have a stake in what goes on in government. That's when they will learn and remember the basics.

Depends on where you live, I guess.  In my town, when the football team was doing great, they brought all kinds of money to the school and the community.  Now that the team sucks, they've had to cut back a lot of things.  Yeah, people like football but there's a reason schools put so much money behind it.  A winning team is like money in the bank.

And this is coming from a guy that doesn't even like football.

It all depends on the size of your market, i guess. I'm not sure why i used football, because in my school's case it was an obnoxiously large, new baseball field that made me think their priorities were out of whack, especially when basketball was the winning program at my high school.