‘Shockingly Dumb’: Here’s What Happened When Spring Breakers Tried to Answer Basic Civics Questions

If you are worried about the quality of the U.S. education system, a viral video of college kids on spring break trying to answer basic questions about American history and the U.S. government isn’t going to alleviate your concerns.

Kaitlin Bennett of Liberty Hangout hit the white sand shoreline of Clearwater, Florida, to quiz some coeds and let’s just say there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of learning happening on college campuses these days.

On Monday’s show, Megyn was joined by Ben Shapiro and Stephen A. Smith to discuss the hilarious-yet-terrifying video and how today’s culture has contributed to it.

The Spring Break Quiz

Over the weekend, Bennett headed to the beach to ask some bikini-clad spring breakers a series of relatively simple civics questions about the country they call home. The results were nothing short of enlightening. Watch:

You can see the longer cut here (if your head won’t explode), but the highlights include: Students believe there are seven U.S. Senators, the FBI is a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Pentagon is shaped like a square, the Civil War was between the “east” and “west,” the Second Amendment is the right to vote, and colonists fought Spain in the Revolutionary War.

To add insult to injury, the young woman who thought the Americans battled it out with the Spanish for independence said she is studying to be… an elementary school teacher. “They are just as dumb as you think and then even dumber than that,” Megyn lamented. “It’s not all of them, but a healthy collection on the beaches celebrating drinking and being youthful.”

In one of the funnier moments, Bennett asked a girl to name the governor of her home state. She shared that she was from Pennsylvania and guessed none other than Megyn’s guest, Ben Shapiro, was in charge.

To be fair, she got the Keystone State governor’s surname right (the correct answer is Josh Shapiro), and the unexpected shoutout gave The Daily Wire co-founder an idea for his future. “I guess that is the way I am going to get elected governor of Pennsylvania right there, and that’s my spokesperson,” Shapiro joked. “I didn’t see that one coming. I will tell you that.”

Cultural Conundrum

While videos like this have circulated for years now spotlighting the shortcomings of at least a certain segment of, first, younger millennials and, now, older gen Z, Smith believes the lack of knowledge is a sign of the times.

“I think that, unlike years in the past, where you had to go to school, capture an education, and find a way to finagle that into building a prosperous life for yourself – something that could sustain and hopefully elevate your quality of life – I don’t think you have a lot of kids looking at that today,” he explained. “Everybody wants something now, so they don’t prioritize learning… That’s the America that I think that we are living in.”

The inability to differentiate between “the marathon and the sprint,” Smith added, will be problematic. “That is the challenge that we have as a society. That is what we got to look forward to,” he said. “They don’t see somebody like you or me, who have been in the business for decades and built something. They want it now… Nothing is about waiting. Nothing is about working it through.”

In Smith’s view, we’ve replaced “failing and falling and getting back up, and persevering and understanding through trials and tribulations” with a mindset of instant gratification regardless of the consequences. “[The approach is] ‘we’re in school, let’s have a good time,'” he said. ‘We got to go to class, but we really want to party. We really want to hang out. We really want to enjoy ourselves.’”

He believes reality will come crashing down on these kids at some point, but the damage may already be done. “They are going to run into reality sooner than later,” Smith concluded. “It doesn’t matter race, ethnicity, whatever the case may be… It seems to be something that is going on universally, and it is just the challenge that adults in the room have to face.”

You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Shapiro and Smith by tuning in to episode 1,033 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.