Citizenship should not depend on a test. It should be more of a job application. Who are you? What’s your background? What can you offer us, if we allow you to join? Do you have some rare skill? Do you have plans to start a business, including funding to do so?

We’ve got plenty of people who can be hotel maids and taxi drivers. We don’t need more.

I agree with Ima Gration, but on the other hand “we had to learn it in elementary school and high school”. I remember in 6th grade we had to run an entire campaign because it was election year. We had to know everything about our President and the candidates. We learned the whole process regarding campaigns and about voting. “ALL” of this should be on the test. ~ It should be on the test how to pay taxes, what are laws and freedoms are.

We also had to know how to speak English and that should be a “requirement…

@Wrote “are” instead of “our”. I need to get with the program today.

The test is easy. If you can swim across the Rio Grande, you pass. Then you get free healthcare schooling for you kids, welfare, help with housing and even free college tuition. And the best part is you don’t have to pay income tax. In fact you don’t even have to take the test to get all that stuff. They have tutors in Mexico that will help you study for the test. They’re called swimming instructors. Stay thirsty my friends.

It isn’t as easy as people assume to get your citizenship. People believe that all you have to do is take a test and if you pass well then congrats you’re a US citizen. There is a long process and a lot of money involved in getting someone’s citizenship. 1st they finger print the person to make sure they are not a wanted felon in the whole world. They do ask “Who are you? What’s your background? What can you offer us, if we allow you to join?”
I think it’s good that people have to go through a list of things before getting their citizenship test. Citizenship isn’t something that should be given away, but earned.
So before anyone opens their mouth, maybe they should know what they are talking about.

What has happened to a traditional American education when students do not know how to write, do not know basic US or MN history, or do not know the basic questions of American citizenship? No wonder we have such political turmoil in this country or lack of the All-American ‘can-do’ spirit!

My late paternal grandmother, who immigrated to the US in 1908 via Ellis Island, not only could ace her citizenship test [when the time came] but could from memory give you the Preamble of the Constitution and [all] The Bill of Rights! She could also tell you all the pertinent elected officials who were in office from city councilman to President. Everyone in her family had to speak educated English, as the primary language, before her native languages. Also, everyone had to graduate from high school before going out into the working world. She was proud to be an American and wanted her family to be the same.

Jason and all, unfortunately, this American ethic seems not the case today. It is a national disgrace to have, according to the Newsweek survey and Good Question tidbits, have citizens who do not know the basics civics that every immigrant taking the Citizenship Test must know. Has our educational system failed us or have we lost our national sense of American pride? Isn’t time we reevaluate what being an American truly is all about?

While I was a junior High School (Faribault ’99) our American Government teacher gave us a sample citizenship test. I don’t remember the score I got, but it was at least 93. Once a year I do the same thing and score 95+.