Are YOU Smarter Than A 5th Grader?
Mar 1I’m sure that many people out there have watched this show (if its claim that it had the highest premiere in the last 8 years is correct). Fox put it in that key spot right after one of their big hits (American Idol) so people who tune in for that are very apt to just leave their tv on.
On the one hand I think that it’s a pretty lame show because it is almost entirely like this show even with the “lifelines” idea. On the other hand, I think that the shower can be interesting at times because we all (as adults) want to be “smarter” than a 5th grader.
The show plays on pride as well as on the fact that there are a lot of things that we are very likely to forget in our lives. Even as someone who has recently finished schooling, I am still over 10 years removed from the 5th grade. That makes it hard to remember the purely knowledge-based answers such as when Columbus Day occurs or who the first president to be impeached was. However, there is just no excusing things that utilize simple principles such as finding the height of a triangle for a given area and base length.
Which begs the question, are the majority of us really “smarter” than a 5th grader? We have more life experience (obviously). But I would tend to think that there are a lot of pretty dumb people out there who couldn’t reason as well as some 5th graders. Interesting and sad.
I surely hope that I’m smarter than a 5th grader, but I’m not going to pound my head against the wall if I don’t know everything that they know. They probably won’t know it in 10 years either. I’m sure not going to sell myself out by taking $5,000 to say that on national television, though. I’m saving my 15 minutes for something more interesting, thank you very much.
Added 03/01/07 11:50 PM
Okay and what is up with these kids? What 10-year old has that much confidence to talk to adults like that?? I know that I sure didn’t. I am finding that they frankly get on my nerves. Anyways, because of these thoughts I also had to add this entry to the “Rant” category. I sure do love to use that category.