Children outclass parents in general knowledge
Parents' grasp of general knowledge is scarcely better than that of their children, research shows today.
In some areas - including geography and science - the average child aged between eight and 12 actually outperforms most adults, it is claimed.
According to the study, more children knew the answer to the question "how many planets are there in our solar system?".
Perhaps surprisingly, more youngsters, who were no older than 12 when questioned, had a better knowledge of the planets and Earth. Seven out of 20 children knew how long a year was on Mars, against six out of 20 adults; while 28 per cent could correctly identify the number of planets, compared to 27 per cent of parents.
However, the parents knew a lot more history.
But concern over pupils' grasp of history was shown by the fact that only half of children could name Shakespeare's birthplace compared to 90 per cent of their mothers and fathers.
At the same time, parents were more likely to identify Florence Nightingale, Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria and know the number of soldiers in a Roman Legion.
So, which do think is more valuable? Knowing how long a year is on Mars or having a grasp on history? I vote for the history.
This does point out a benefit of homeschooling. Parents learn right along side their children.
To see how you rank, click here to take the test yourself.
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Related Tags: public school, homeschool, Mars, History, Florence Nightingale, Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria
6 comments:
6 out of 10
How about you? :D
I got 8 out of 10.
I think that children's minds can grasp trivia and other facts. It is known that as we age we lose "what we don't use". Actually in America the schooled kids end up cramming trivia and facts and so that is why they know that. The schooled kids usually lack "connections", I know you know what I'm talking about.
I think this gets back to the fact that American schools teach stuff that most of us don't use in our real adult lives. That is why we forget it.
The only reason I knew some of those answers was that I homeschool my own kids, including the questions about world history.
The answer with Simon Cowell was from current American pop culture (television) which is something I'm not so proud of.
Lastly we adults have a lot more wisdom and life experience, people skills and "social skills", things that are very important in life that the children are just developing. The debate over who is smarter is then a bit of a silly question.
Plus we could make a different kind of test about smarts, like about managing finances, investing our money, pension funds, mortgages, and how to maintain a house and all kinds of stuff like that and the kids would fail.
With that said the TV show "Are you smarter than a fifth grader" does show some adults really are lacking in even the most basic "school-y trivia". That is a bit scary to watch.
9 out of 10. I didn't know how long a year was on Mars.
What I find interesting about "Are you smarter than a 5th Grader" is not how much of the information stuffed into kids in school gets forgotten, but how irrelevant most of it is to life after school in the first place.
I thought the focus (of the test and Are you smarter than a 5th grader) was a bit trivial myself.
"cramming trivia and facts" is a good way to discribe school.
Oh, and I got 6 out of ten. I guess Pluto is officially off the list.
I think the low score on the planets question was due to the number just changing. I got 10 out of 10, but I always have been good at eliminating the wrong options at multiple choice. ;-)
>. . . but I always have been good at eliminating the wrong options at multiple choice. ;-)
That is a talent to be admired.
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