thanks for coming back to this is the first time in a long time that we've done the program things they usually don't teach you the reason why this program became so interesting is for a couple reasons actually one is that i'm on the curricular committee here for the school district and i've had the opportunity to meet with a bunch of teachers as well as some of the principals and discuss some of the processes of the curriculum here and peter sonship but that's not the only thing that affected me coming up with this program today a lot of the schools in the midwest as well all over the country actually have come up with the idea that whenever the students coming in from high school what they've done is in fact do programs to find out exactly where they are so what they've done is they give tests of the freshman coming in and they find out if they need remedial training in anything well for example university of pittsburgh does more remedial math training than probably every other program that they have that's disturbing because the parents are paying for the students to be at school for medial programs all right so that usually adds maybe another semester or maybe a whole year as a part of the questions we come up with today for the program interesting questions about our country in two thousand and eleven are questions that have come from a lot of the questions that these universities are vast and they have found that the history of the united states the geography of the united states the civics of the united states aren't being taught and so this is one of the things that in fact during the curriculum committee i found out that we have fabulous teachers all right we have great administrators but it seems that there's a destroyer somewhere ok the first grade teacher the second grade teacher third grade teacher aren't necessarily building up on what the first person pots what they are doing though is they have a curriculum that gives a specific on what they're supposed to teach now as you may know the kindergarten teachers here in the school district have to in fact discuss canada all right wally's said that's an interesting topic and i've been there a number of times is a beautiful country but the relevance of canada to the students of the school district at that age especially is probably pretty irrelevant so the big thing is the fact that what we're doing is we're looking at building on things but once again the program today doesn't talk a lot about that what we're doing is we're discussing the issues that the schools have done or the answers that the schools have done and are found in their remedial testing a freshman for their colleges all right once again these are going to seem very very basic all right to a point but understand that the problem that we're having is the fact that many of these students don't come in with the basics needed all right the first question that we have today what do the stripes on our flag represents thirteen original indian nations that were on this continent one of the settlers arrived thirteen individuals who met to discuss breaking away from england the idea francis scott key had or thirteen colonies that rebelled against the british the answer of course hopefully is the original thirteen colonies all right this is he said they say very basic but in fact people don't understand that this also ties into our flag why there's thirteen stripes the meaning of the flag for example was not something that they came up with right away all right it is something that in hundred seventy seven charles thompson decided to in fact come up with a symbol of the country and in fact that's how the eagle became our symbol actually because of the fact that they used t one of these questions like he said they seem so basic and so simple but the students are not passing on them what is the usual last day you can follow your income tax and i say the usual because this year's a little bit different by february fifteenth march fifteenth april fifteenth or may fifteenth ok course hopefully the answer is april fifteenth but in this year of course the taxes were allowed to be followed on april eighteenth because washington d c had a holiday one of the two major political parties in the united states today like a modern socialist liberal and conservative republican and democrat independent and green once again of late it's an easy question of republican and democrat there are those who say that that's not necessarily the case anymore all right the tea parties coming up and who knows what they're going to be doing in the future how long are the members of the u s house elected for ok this gets everybody confused i don't care if you've been around for eighty years or if you're just a student in high school the question is how long are they elected for six years four years two years or three years the correct answer is two years all right every member of congress every member of congress is elected for two years congressman tim murphy has to run for election every two years which takes up a lot of their time which is also one of the reasons why they have to raise a lot of money constantly all right people are suggesting that a continental congress would be met to in fact extend that period of time course those are the same people that are discussing the idea of term limits but two bodies in our system make up our congress just a little clue judicial and executive branch the supreme court and the senate the house and the senate the upper and lower house of parliament ok and the answer there of course is the house and the senate ok let's again the reason why these questions are brought up like this is because of the fact that the students are failing every one of these questions that are asked on a test on an average of these universities and things the students are failing at least thirty percent of them either don't know the answer giving the wrong answer or in fact giving the answer that in fact they don't know the answer all right so there are in fact is the problem that we have we're spending a lot of money in education today and now you have to ask yourself are you getting your money's back and if you're spending an extra year for your student your child to in fact attend college i would say the answer is probably no all right this one seems so simple what is the name of the president's home in washington the executive house the  presidential state the white house the presidential dwelling the white house of course is the name that we know on six hundred pennsylvania avenue but that's not always been the case all right the roosevelt officially named the white house in one thousand nine hundred one ok it was previously known as the presidential palace the president's house and the executive mansion what type of economic system does the united states have free market or capitalist traditional market system democratic socialist system or can these in economic system ok now the question seems to be especially lately when we see our government spending more than we've ever done before it seems to be possibly a democratic socialist system but in fact the answer is free market or capitalist that's the way it has been basically all of our existence and hopefully it will be that way in the future what is the duty of an american citizen ok the duty of the american citizen all right we'll bring that back when we come back off a commercial already that's something to think about because this is something that most people do not understand all right peace corps life is calling as far will you go  thanks for coming back needless to say we are on the question what is the duty as an american citizen this one i'm sorry to say that most of the college students in these testings only got this right thirty percent of the time which is like i said very disturbing when you think about being a social studies teacher ok i in fact find this to be appalling but a lot of these questions we talk about in fact i have talked to kids around the neighborhood got their answers and be surprised what they say is the duty as an american citizen to obtain a free education to work wherever you want serve on a jury or to be protected by our court system ok and the answer is serve on a jury that is one of your your legal duties and you can actually be thrown in jail for not doing that ok an american citizen must obey the laws passed by congress even though they don't obey them themselves and laws passed by state laws local legislatures serve as a witness have asked in a court to do so a witness must respond to do court order or to appear before the court order and a subpoena and serve on a jury employers must allow citizens to serve with no problems asked ok but the serving on a jury is in fact the answer to the question what is the requirement of an american citizen name two national holidays thanksgiving christmas veterans an independence day christmas and easter memorial day and guy f ok and the correct answer to that is veteran's an independence day these are two national holidays but there are of course we all know that they're not the only two the uniform holidays bill one thousand nine hundred sixty eight as amended new year's day memorial day independence veterans day labor day thanksgiving christmas and the quadrennial holiday for d c virginia maryland only because that's election day inauguration is exactly that day and martin luther king's day and the president's day in columbus day are all the national holidays you know we look even though pennsylvania has no active military bases we have a lot of reserve bases and  facilities but we have none that are active whenever martin luther king's birthday was in fact considered a day off for the military here in southwest pennsylvania the expense the government was eighteen million dollars so that gives you an idea on how many people there are in the military in southwest pennsylvania in case you're wondering who guy fawkes was if you are a movie boss that you've seen him in the movie be the vendetta all right that's the entire story based on a guy fox he was a person in the catholic minority in england at the time who in fact wanted to blow up parliament because of the fact that they had changed from the to the church of england from the pope all right so it's an interesting every nov fifth they have a bonfire which celebrates guy fawkes day and i said have you seen the movie on the the vendetta which is actually on t v at this time you get pretty good idea  what country was our main enemy during the cold war germany north korea japan the union a soviet socialist republic or cuba and the answer there is the union of soviet socialist republics which in fact is no longer in existence they are independent states at this time how many senators are there in congress ninety ninety five one hundred one hundred four and the correct answer is one hundred all right once again puerto rico is applying for state status if in fact that happens they will be offered to senator positions as well as the congressional positions what is the minimum age to vote that changed of course whenever i was in the military way back when the current age is eighteen it used to be twenty one what is the minimum age to become president thirty thirty five thirty eight or forty the ages thirty five ok i'm seeing nodding of heads apparently people here know the answers this is great who's the first president of the united states yes folks believe it or not thirty percent of college freshman did not know or did not have the answer to this question which is very very concerning and of course hopefully fingers crossed the answer is george washington which were the three british colonies the original british colonies wheezy and ohio pennsylvania virginia new  florida north carolina or south carolina virginia maryland and pennsylvania hopefully we have that answer ok virginia maryland and pennsylvania is the answer what was the name of the war fought between the north and south the war against northern aggression the civil war the war between the states the second american revolution or the war of the rebellion ok i'm seeing questioning looks ok the answer is all of them and more ok the names for the civil war include the war for constitutional liberty the second american revolution the war for southern rights the war to suppress yankee arrogance ok the great rebellion the war of slavery and the war for the union now if you don't think this is very very very much in people's minds at this time my brother who used to be a chaplain in the military was done in atlanta not too long well whatever he was in about ten years ago and the museum that they went to visit in fact the air conditioning was out not you've ever been a labrador in the summertime you know that's almost unbearable he made the comment to somebody in this crowd that in fact that not all they can see why the north won the war and believe it or not he was escorted out of the museum so they do carry a grudge who are our main enemies during world war two germany italy and u s s r japan china italy japan germany russia and germany italy and japan the answer to this question is germany italy in japan all right well come back after this commercial look forward to having you back thank you have you ever heard of lupus chances are you know someone whose life has been affected a new diagnosis every half hour one and a half million patients that's enough to fill thirty baseball stadiums too many people for you not to know anything get educated  i had a stroke i had a stroke i had a stroke five years ago three quarters of a million americans experience a stroke each year and he's had a stroke already the chances are good that you can have enough but it doesn't have to have though i'm eating healthy and i'm exercising again i always take my medicine and follow doctor's orders even if i feel fine even when i feel fine after thirty five years i quit smoking if you  coming back who are our main enemies going world war two we came up with germany italy and japan but the powers during world war two for the axis was germany italy japan and the berlin pack had other countries coming on for their side ball garia croatia hungary romania slovakia in addition to denmark finland and spain even though spain tried to stay  neutral during the entire war one of the southern most points in the us and its territories this one had a ninety percent failure rate by those tests that we talked about  certain things all right and rose atoll and american samoa is the southernmost point of all us territories hawaii kalay a whole why is the southern most point of the fifty states why is the southern most town of the fifty states and western dr rox florida is the southernmost point in the forty eight contiguous states what section of government has the responsibility to negotiate treaties with foreign countries the president the congress the senate or the supreme court the answer to that is the president what section of government has the responsibility to ratify those treaties once again the president congress the people or the supreme court and this one the congress has the responsibility to ratify what states border canada michigan west virginia minnesota michigan new york new hampshire pennsylvania delaware or montana and oregon the only one who doesn't is west virginia and delaware how many states border canada thirteen alaska michigan maine minnesota montana new york washington north dakota ohio vermont new hampshire idaho and pennsylvania and if you wonder why that little thing up to lake erie was for commerce and that's why that little jetson going up to lake erie in fact was founded in the order of succession for presidency of the united states who was fourth in line the speaker of the house secretary of justice president pro tem of the senate secretary of defense president of the senate or secretary of state the fourth in line is the secretary of state ok as you see there by the twenty fifth amendments ratified one hundred sixty seven a death of president kennedy in fact made a specific listing and you'll see the ten people it goes down to the secretary of commerce being president everybody else is out of the way in which of these events was the basis of the philosophy of us constitution the federalist papers statutes of seventeen seventy three the philadelphia convention constitution of france are the two trees these of government the answer for that is the two government by john locke if those are written and sixteen eighty and sixty ninety which is almost one hundred years prior to our government fighting and winning the revolution who is considered the father the direct declaration of independence john adams thomas jefferson george washington or admiral de graaf thomas jefferson is the answer for that because of the fact that he was the writer he was the actual put paper the pen type person but there are those that in fact say john adams and james madison played a much bigger role and could also koshare and that concept which is the right or freedom not guaranteed by the bill of rights freedom of the press freedom of speech freedom of religion and the right to pursuit of happiness ok the right to pursuit of happiness is not guaranteed by the bill of right corrupt and things today doesn't necessarily mean that just started recently all right the x y z affair was involved with the louisiana purchase and the louisiana purchase was during that time  where france minister just to get in to talk to m one a two hundred fifty thousand dollars and they wanted to be able to get a twelve million dollar loan from the united states you have to understand though this is right after france supplied us with hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of troops to help us beat the british ok adams a course did not pay them their their hush money and that was great hua season b anthony a nurse first woman judge civil rights activist the first family governor she was a civil rights activist ok she was prominent american civil rights activities and pivotal during the one thousand century who was the current chief justice of the u supreme court ruth ginsburg clarence thomas john roberts samuel alito answer is john roberts ok he was appointed into that position who was a president during world war two eisenhower roosevelt dewey trast or truman and the correct answer is roosevelt and truman the reason for that is roosevelt was reelected to a fourth term but died in office and was succeeded by truman who had just become vice president in that january the future programs that were going to issue dealing with the american flag for example is going to be coming up hopefully in a next few weeks all right we're going to is there a law about flying the flag do people fly it properly there is a law and we'll discuss that in death are there methods that you're required to follow all fall flying that flag yes there are procedures or pictures from local flags that aren't being flown correctly yes we're i'm getting a number of people sending me pictures of flags flown by neighbors or businesses that have tears that are being flown with lights  proper way to fold the flag in the history of the american flag these are all presentations we're going to be looking at in a very very near future so hopefully once again you'll join us for another adventure with things they usually don't teach you all right