I had a discussion with some children today. It was pretty amusing and urned kind of depressing quickly. When I was in school, we had to know all the states and capitals in a timed test by 4th grade at the latest. Maybe with the advent of GPS and smart phones and Google, no one needs to learn that stuff anymore. But don't we really? This was the converation as it went down with some kids at work.
Me: What is the capital of Texas?
Child 1: Dallas? Wait, that's a TV show...um, Old El Paso?
Child 2: No, goofy, that's a taco company. Do you know the capital of Utah?
Child 3: I do, I do!! It is St. Louis!! You just got burned!!
Child 4: No, duh, St. Louis is in California. Honestly.
Child 2: That doesn't sound right...where is St. Louis?
Child 1: It sounds like it should be in France.
Me: (Shaking my head) But if it was in France, they would pronounce it "San Loo-EE".
Child 5: Why are we talking about France? We need to get with our own country first.
Child 4: We never had to learn all that stuff. As long as we know that Memphis is the capital of our state, that is really all we need to know.
Me: I need some Motrin.
This was not a group of uneducated children. They are super smart, passed me two years ago in math, kind of kids. Our teachers have a whole lot of stuff they have to cram in our kids heads every day. Let's help them by educating them in states and capitals. For the love of parental sanity.
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