Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

I am always shocked by how much information I have forgotten from my primary, middle (and dare I say – high school) education years. I always enjoyed school (yes, believe it), and my grades were always good (Can you believe it?).

So it’s great for me that I have been relearning so much information from homeschooling my son. The information has come in handy. A few months ago, I was working on a writing assignment for a client and needed a launch-in to an article about big ships on the high seas. I didn’t have to brainstorm much past that morning’s history lesson about the ancient Phoenicians. Helpful, especially to someone who would just a day earlier have stumbled over an accurate description if asked exactly who the Phoenicians were and what was their contribution to society?

I felt….knowledgeable.

Stop laughing.

For the past two years, I have been learning Latin. You might think a journalism major such as my illustrious self would have had some Latin experience at least in high school. But, nooooooooooo. Public schools taught Latin in the earlier years when they were focused on providing a more classical education, skipped (my) Generation X, and now appear to be teaching it again to middle and high schoolers.

I’m learning it vicariously through my son and the homework assignments given by his Latin teacher. It’s one instance where my 5^th grader has to correct my grammar, and I have to look to him to see if I’m pronouncing the word right or writing the verb the correct way.

Give me a few more months, and I will finally be able to say, “I’m smarter than a 5^th grader.”

Hope you are, too!

Love,

TCB