So, Are YOU Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Last night I was talking to my 12 year old nephew on my way home from class as I do most nights and was asking him about what he was up to, what he is learning in school, and if he finished his homework. Which, I suppose is to be expected from a 5^th grader, not much elaboration on his answers. But he was telling me how well he did on his report card and that he made sure he got his homework done b/c one of his favorite shows was on television. That show would be Fox’s Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader?. I immediately thought to myself “Wow this is what this country has come too”. I’d never heard of this show prior to this, so I had my nephew explain the premise of the show to me. Basically, the adult contestant has to answers questions ranging from 1^st to 5^th grade and moves up the “money ladder” which tops out at $1 million. They have a “classroom” of 5^th graders (I suppose they are all in 5^th grade) and they help the contest if need be (the contest has 3 various ways to request help). The show is a varied form of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but in an elementary school setting.

I decided to watch this show when I got home just to see how atrocious it would be. The questions were not as hard as I thought they would be (i.e. how many sides does a trapezoid have; how many decades are in two millennia). The young lady that was on the program last night got to the $175,000 question and decided to stop, so she left with $100,000 and she had to proclaim “I am not as smart as a 5^th grader”. The latter of the above two questions was the $175,000 question. As the show ended I was thinking a couple things. First, I don’t what to think about someone who is “not as smart as a 5^th grader” running around w/ $100K. I wouldn’t want my nephew to have possession of $100,000. This sentiment was especially bothersome since I am a grad student who is grinding and pursuing a Masters in part to better my future financial standing and this woman is celebrating her ignorance and won $100K w/ the help of 5^th graders. The other thing I was thinking was what does a show like this say about American culture and society? How self-absorbed, short-sighted, and gluttonous a people have we become? I understand it is entertainment and Im sure the producers of the show weed out any intelligent people so they can create that entertainment. But at what cost? Furthermore, has education come to the point where we need shows like this to teach our children something? There is a genocide going on in the Sudan, a war in the Middle East, a majority of the world lives below the poverty line, and we in the U.S. are being entertained by people who are “not as smart as a 5^th grader” winning money. It might just be me, but I see a disconnect. A disconnect between us and pretty much the rest of the world. It’s a disconnect that frustrates me. We are supposed to be the leaders of the free world and in that we are to set an example. I know that there are no answers b/c quite frankly we have become victims of our own success. We have more or less (speaking on which make sure you check out the new Talib Kweli song More/Less) become a country in which one-size-fits-all. And provocative and thought-provoking discourse has taken a back seat to primetime television. And like it or not television programming is telling the rest of the world about the U.S. Now it may not be this show, but certainly others. The one that specifically comes to mind is Baywatch, I can remember being in India during multiple summers and episodes being played at nauseum. And that sets an example. I don’t think you can blame people abroad that they don’t know that this is not reality in the U.S. In a country where people are concerned about Brittney Spears shaving her head and the custody battle over Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter, I don’t think we can stand on the soapbox anymore and critique societies of developing countries as being beneath us.