I'm sure many of you have heard of the game show "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?." For those who haven't, the premise of the game is to match your wealth of knowledge against a group of 5th graders. If you answer a question correctly, you win some money. Sounds simple enough right?
That's what I thought until I heard some of the questions. The knowledge these 5th graders have is far more advanced than what an average 5th grader possesses. Are we really mentally inferior to a 10-year-old child? Or is the idea of what comprises knowledge different between different groups of people?
According to the book, knowledge is information or data which can be stored or retrieved. In this sense, it is just regurgitation. We read a textbook, memorize some insignificant facts, and write them down on a piece of paper to demonstrate our "knowledge" of the material during an exam. But if you're like me, you forget everything you were tested on 5 minutes after leaving the test. Knowledge can be a devastating weapon that can be utilized. Through knowledge, the A-Bomb was constructed and caused immense damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. At any given moment, a nuclear war may start and life on Earth would probably cease to exist. On a lighter note, knowledge can bring back nostalgic memories. On a recent vacation with my family, I was watching cartoons with my 5-year-old niece. They happened to be airing Tom & Jerry at the time. While watching, I reminisced about my childhood and watching all the classic cartoons such as Looney Tunes, Flintstones, Popeye, Jetsons, etc. My niece asked me what she was watching so I explained Tom & Jerry to her briefly. After it ended, we looked for more cartoons to watch and we ended up on some contemporary cartoon that I had never seen or heard of. Not surprisingly, she knew exactly what it was and I could only nod and hope she can't already solve complex derivative equations because I sure as hell can't.
What knowledge is to each person varies based on their individual perspective. I think knowledge is subjective and consists of information gathered from our prior experiences. In terms of overall knowledge, we as college students are deemed to be fairly intelligent. In some cases though, we are not smarter than a 5th grader. We may not even be smarter than a soon-to-be kindergarten student. I know for sure I'm not.
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3 comments:
I like how you balance a long view of human existence with an inviting narrative of watching cartoons with your niece. Also, the game show example is a nice point of entry; but maybe you could have linked us to an image from the show, or the show's website or something? Or a Youtube clip of the show?
Yeah that reminds me of how there are some riddles that a 5 year old can solve a lot more easily than a graduate student at a university.
an example
What goes from here to there by appearing and from there to here by disappearing?
In general a 5 year old is more likely to answer that question then someone who is 20. It is all about how we look at things differently.
The sun?
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