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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Tue May 19, 2015, 09:11 PM May 2015

Canada: One third of American 8th graders think Canadians live in a dictatorship

It’s a looping belt of tyranny that swoops from the South Pacific to Europe and all the way across the Americas. It controls three of the world’s 12 largest economies and the entire global supply of some key resources. It is, in the eyes of the world’s most important, and perhaps only relevant, demographic, a new axis of autocracy and it isn’t centred in Pyongyang, Tehran or Harare but in Canberra, Paris and, yes, Ottawa.

That demographic, of course, is the American teen. And if new U.S. test results are any sign, that all important group doesn’t think highly of us, if it thinks of us at all.

In recent results from the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress — billed as the Nation’s Report Card — fully 33 per cent of American 8th graders said Canada, Australia and France are dictatorships of one kind or another.

Asked on a national standardized test what the current governments of the three countries have in common, 23 per cent of the 29,000 teens tested chose “they have leaders with absolute power” from the four options available. Another 10 per cent chose “they are controlled by the military” while 12 per cent picked “they discourage participation by citizens in public affairs.”

more

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-new-axis-of-evil-canada-one-third-of-american-8th-graders-think-we-live-in-a-dictatorship

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Canada: One third of American 8th graders think Canadians live in a dictatorship (Original Post) n2doc May 2015 OP
Well, at least until Stephen "W." Harper is gone ... Newsjock May 2015 #1
Lol F4lconF16 May 2015 #2
Point in their favor. At least they know Canada is a different country. Cleita May 2015 #3
The progress Americans have made in primary education has truly been remarkable........ Fred Sanders May 2015 #6
Their head of state is an absolute monarch. AngryAmish May 2015 #4
You mean to tell me they do not? nadinbrzezinski May 2015 #5

F4lconF16

(3,747 posts)
2. Lol
Tue May 19, 2015, 09:15 PM
May 2015
So when the 8th graders chose absolute power or military dictatorship on the test, they likely did so more out of ignorance than any specific knowledge of Stephen Harper or Tony Abbott

Cleita

(75,480 posts)
3. Point in their favor. At least they know Canada is a different country.
Tue May 19, 2015, 09:15 PM
May 2015

When I was in the eighth grade, most Americans thought Canada was part of The USA.

 

nadinbrzezinski

(154,021 posts)
5. You mean to tell me they do not?
Tue May 19, 2015, 09:21 PM
May 2015

(For those who need it... )

I actually had somebody tell me that Mexico is not, contrary to all the things I know from actual real life, a democracy. Granted, they have some serious issues with their democracy, and I will contend as serious as ours, but that is a whole different kettle of fish. Americans at times can be funny that way.

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