Friday, December 23, 2005

Citizenship exam to be made more 'meaningful'

I think it is a very good idea to have these immigrants study relevant things to become Americans. They will appreciate their new country much more if they understand it and they will develop a loyalty to it. DP

El Paso Times, elpasotimes.com : The naturalization test given to immigrants aspiring to become U.S. citizens will be redesigned within two years to make the questions "more meaningful," Alfonso Aguilar, chief of the office of citizenship for Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Thursday in El Paso.

The new test will not be more difficult, Aguilar said, but it will be more substantive than the current test, which hasn't been changed since it was drafted in 1986.

The current questions are "very trivia-based," Aguilar said. "You have seven questions about the flag in there. What color are the stripes? What color are the stars? You have questions about what form to use to apply for citizenship. That doesn't teach you anything. When immigrants are studying for it, they get very little civic context out of it."

The test is a pool of 96 questions about U.S. history and civics, from which immigration agents pick 10 questions at random. It is administered along with a short written exam, a reading test and an interview.

Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.

No comments: