Just because you can remember trivial facts does not make you intelligent. Intelligence is USING what you know. Making kids memorize and regurgitate facts like what dates the wars started and ended is not the way to grade intelligence. You should be teaching kids basic skills like math and English-these actually allow you to use the things you have memorized to do SOMETHING.

Being on the show Jeopardy and spewing facts doesn’t mean they are intelligent. What makes them intelligent is the fact that they are USING the knowledge to try to get money.

The show “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?” should be called, “Who Can Remember Facts That They Will Never Use?” These kids just took tests on this trivia and the adults took tests on it 20 years ago. Why should they know this stuff? If they wanted to show intelligence, they should go on the show and immediately say, “I am smarter than a fifth grader because I don’t eat my boogers.” and walk off.

So remember, it’s not WHAT you know, but how you USE what you know.