I can sort of understand why just over 30% of Americans believe Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
I can even understand why 10% of the population thinks Barack Obama is a Muslim. (pdf link)
But really? 18% of Americans think the sun revolves around the Earth??
REALLY??
By this math, 54 million Americans need to be lined up and shot. Even if you adjust for everyone who hasn’t made it through 6th grade science yet, that’s just abysmal. I mean, I know I’m a bright kid, and pretty much all my friends are in the good tail of the bell curve, but still, I cannot conceive that there are literally tens of millions of people in this country with a pre-Galileo concept of how the solar system works. No wonder the rest of the world is eating our lunch.
Just for the record, in Virginia we teach this in sixth grade science. I’m sure it’s taught again, but I know it’s taught in sixth grade science. We don’t test sixth grade science, so the odds that it’s actually taught in sixth grade science? Slim.
This really tempts me to want to stand on a street corner in the middle of Times Square and randomly stop people to ask them their opinion on the subject. Also, the fact that I just typed the words “opinion on the subject” regarding the matter of the earth revolving around the sun makes me throw up a little in my mouth.