Americans have never been great at taking tests. The most recent and important failure was a survey from the PEW research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life. The survey contained questions on major world religions ranging from, “What religion was Mother Teresa?” to “In which religion are Vishnu and Shiva central figures?”

On average Americans could only answer 16 out of 32 questions about the history, teachings, and leaders of major world religions. For those of us who are doing less than great in our math classes that’s 50%.

As your mom might have said when she saw your SAT results, I think that score is just too low.

But there’s a reason why the average American could only get 50% of the questions correct and it all boils down to the fact that religion is not taught in public schools.

At face value I agree with the separation of church and state; nobody should have a religion forced down their throats.

But the truth is that religion is a major driving force in almost every aspect of the political and social atmosphere of our world. How can we expect to produce a well rounded generation prepared to function in our world, if we completely leave out a key piece of world history and culture? How can we expect to make rational foreign policy decisions in the future if we’re not teaching our future about foreign religions?

If people go to war over money, land, or religion- as the old saying goes- then we should gain at least a basic understanding of all three at some point. In high school you learn about economics, government, and geography Why shouldn’t you also get at least one course in religion?

The consequences of not providing an education are shown in the statistics from the PEW survey. Half of the people surveyed didn’t know that the golden rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” is not one of the ten commandments. Less that one third of the people surveyed knew that according to Supreme Court rulings public school teachers can read from the bible as an example of literature. High school students scored worse on the quiz compared to college students and adults.

To test how well South High students know religion The Southerner took seven relatively easy questions word-for-word from the actual PEW survey and distributed them to South students. The majority of people surveyed knew that Mother Teresa was Catholic and that Ramadan is the Islamic holy month. Less than fifty percent of people surveyed knew that the golden rule is not one of the ten commandments. Less than one third of people surveyed knew that U.S. public school teachers can read from the bible as an example of literature. And we go to a public school! How can you make informed decisions about religious education if you don’t even know anything about it?

In Austria children in public schools can choose between taking a class in Islam, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Judaism or Buddhism. Many other European governments, such as England and France, have systems like this in their public schools mostly to promote national identity.

The United States is in desperate need of a system that teaches religion: one in which all major world religions are covered and the teachers are closely monitored to make sure that every religion gets the same time and treatment.

Having a system like this would benefit the future of America in a major way. Our high school students are woefully uninformed.

Over all, South students did better on the quiz than high school students nationwide (keeping in mind that the questions selected were relatively easy) but let’s get a few things straight, just for kicks: Joseph Smith was not Buddhist, neither was Mother Teresa.

Students need to know about religion. America says they want no child left behind, but they’re leaving thousands of us behind by not supplying us with the education necessary to function and make change in the future of our world. People may not like it, they may disagree with it, but there’s no denying that religion plays a major role in the way our world works. Other students in other schools all over the world are outrunning us in the great race of education. We may not care about this now but we will later. The people in congress should take a hard look at our education system and make some changes. If every student is required to know who the presidents are they should also be required to know what the principles of major religions are.