Has anyone seen the show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" This show, on the surface is very funny. Adults try to answer elementary grade school text book questions to earn a million dollars. What is even more interesting, and sad, is that the contestants get 3 cheats where the class of 5th graders can help the contestant.
The funny thing is, and again sad, is that NO ONE has one a million dollars. I question whether the show is a testament to the intelligence of our younger generation-the fact that they can outsmart a person at least twice there age makes this a pretty convincing argument. However, I also wonder if the show doesn't say something about the levels and systems of education in our country. Do students simply memorize material just to spit it back out....yes, this is an obvious answer. How many of adults memorize the Pythagorean Theorem only to repeat it again 5 years later? It doesn't happen to often-no one remembers it. And yet these things are deemed important....so why don't we as adults remember the base for learning and the beginning of our education? Why can so many adults prove that they are not smarter than a 5th grader?
Of course, adults do have the learning from experience thing going for them, and the base for learning in elementary school is combined and added upon as students grown and learn throughout their education careers. I still have to ask though, why are so many of us not smarter than a fifth grader? Are we losing common sense to 10-year-olds? The question makes a great debate for both the modern school system and pop-culture.