A Gannett news story in today’s Phoenix newspaper about the revision of the citizenship test is fascinating in two respects.
First, it took four years to revise a simple test! And it cost $6.5 million! Good grief, I would have gladly done it in a week for no more than half of that money! As would any high school civics teacher the country. Has everybody running our government gone completely insane?
Second, the headline amusingly proclaimed, “Citizenship test vows to be more civics-minded.” I’m wondering how a test can make such a vow, or any vow for that matter?
Have you actually seen this test? The graphics on Challenge One are insane. You have five minutes to kill as many terrorists as possible in a full virtual reality machine. General firearm handling is graded with an emphasis on handguns and assault rifles.
Part 2 is a mini business school where participants have 30 days to turn an initial investment of $100 into $10,000 any legal way they choose.
Those that make it past those parts go onto:
Part 3 is a mock-up game show like Jeopardy where participants compete of U.S. centric categories. The winner earns citizenship while the losers earn toasters or vacuum cleaners as well as a ticket back to their country of origin.
Are we talking about the same thing? This is about the test to become a U.S. citizen, given by our government! My wife took the test, so I have seen several versions in the preperation booklet.
I assume you are talking about some computer game? Otherwise, WTF?
The real test has something to do with pudding and Bill Cosby. But no, seriously, the test could be as simple as “You have 10 minutes to list as many Bush administration violations of the Constitution as you can think of”.