a nation of 5th-graders

On the last night of our vacation, we were supposed to fit in several more activities in Salt Lake City, but I had been struck down (yes, it was that dramatic) with food poisoning the previous night and was still recovering, so we stayed in the hotel instead, channel-surfing. Weren't we lucky to catch our first glimpse of "Are You Smarter Than A 5th-Grader?" a game show where adults are paid to answer unbelievably simple questions.

Apparently this show has been on for more than one season, but the night we watched was the first time a person had answered all the questions successfully (and won a million dollars). She was the superintendent of schools in Georgia, so wasn't that a relief. More than once the audience was encouraged to "stay in school!" and this woman's general message was just how important public education is (despite twice delivering long-winded answers with assurance "because I was a teacher" and "this is what I always taught my students" which included quite a bit of incorrect information; how comforting to know that such an education exists for our children, and that such great teachers can become superintendents if they stick with it long enough).

So after the show was over, Rhanna looks at us and says, "So what's the point of that show, anyway?" which made me crack up. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she was sensing the irony in the whole thing. The POINT of the show is that, despite wasting the first 18 years of your life sitting behind a desk with "experts" filling your head with all sorts of useless trivia, you will most likely grow up into an adult with little-to-no recollection of ANY of it, even with the very desirable carrot of a million dollars as motivation. HAHAHAHAHAHA! What a great joke! That redneck guy is smarter than we give him credit for, I think.