Are you smarter than a fifth grader? I’d say your chances are slim. A new game show on Fox puts fifth graders against adults in a battle of elementary wits. While the game show has its merit, in many ways it just shows how much useless knowledge is taught in schools.

I’m not talking useless knowledge like the Oscar-winning director of Happy Feet also directed Mad Max. No. I’m talking about useless knowledge like knowing which president was the first to be impeached, and geometric math.

While the first episode only covered one and a half contestants, commercials have previewed questions like “What is a pronoun?”. Now, I can’t answer that question because I just don’t know — but when ever have you needed to know what a pronoun is?

I know teaching is complicated and you have to learn basics before you learn complex references, but honestly - so what if I know that the pilgrims came over on the Mayflower? Unless I’m on a game show I won’t need it. I remember learning it in school along with other classic learning topics, but I can’t say I’ve needed them in life. Ever.

Rushing first graders to know whether or not polar bears eat penguins is really unnecessary, if you ask me. Before too long there will be pre-school for pre-schoolers. They’ll be forced to take tests before they’re three years old. Not good…not good at all.

But at least it makes for entertaining television.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 12:33 am and is filed under All. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.