Hmmmm...

80% of 5 years olds know there have only been white presidents

1/3 believe it is against the law for a black person to be elected president

source: University of Texas

Before my kids woke this morning I caught most of a segment on Good Morning America. It was about race, but what struck me was this little tidbit that flashed on the screen during the story (see above). 80%????!!! Of 5 year olds??! I must really be failing as a parent - I don't believe Addi can name or recognize 1 president, including the current one! She's only 4, but does a year really make that much difference? I mean, silly me, I've been working with her on letter sounds, and simple words, and patterns, and numbers when, apparently, I also need to be squeezing in some US history! Come on, people! I don't know where they got the 5 year olds or how the questions were asked, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that there were some major flaws in that study. Not that I'm trying to imply that anything to do with the University of Texas would be flawed :) Really though, I work with 3 and 4 year olds (in a preschool in Raleigh which was named the 3rd most educated city in the US) and have taught 6-12 year olds in the past, so I know a little something about the knowledge of a typical child. Typical 5 year olds don't know there have only been white presidents in this country. That is plain ridiculous! Most couldn't name more than 1 or 2 presidents and would only recognize their faces on money. I'm not sure what the GMA folks wanted to prove by flashing this on screen, except maybe you can find a study that "proves" anything if you have time to read all 20,400,000 hits that pop up when you Google 'presidents'. Anyway, I better get going...have to download pictures of all 40+ presidents to hang up in Addi's room :)