Friday, September 5, 2008

Yes Virginia, someone IS smarter than a 5th grader!

The premise is simple enough: Years out of school, people go on a game show that asks not the brainy MENSA questions, but the same kind of questions asked in elementary school. In other words, do you think you know more than a ten year old? In fact do you remember what was TAUGHT in elementary school?

Seemed like a crazy concept at the time when it went on the air in the States last year, but Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader has taken the world by storm. No fewer than 44 versions air worldwide, including a French Canadian version due to air on TVA this fall.

And who finally proved that one can be smarter than a 5th grader (at least in America)? Unbelieveably, it was the superintendent of the Georgia schools, Kathy Cox; who intends to donate the million dollar prize to three state schools for the blind and the deaf. Her reason for risking it all and going for it? To encourage kids not to quit school.

Good for her. And the big question was about world history, something a lot of Americans couldn't give a damn about. Something to think about in the coming election -- isolationism vs being an open door to the world.

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