Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? The Smithsonian Isn’t
Thu, Apr 3, 2008
Jeff Foxworthy has joined television legends in America by asking us all if we could pass fifth-grade science, math, social studies, and spelling.
Image from Project BS on Flickr
He’s embarrassed lawyers, businessmen, and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. He must be kicking himself for not having the audacity to invite a Smithsonian Museum curator, because that might have been the most shocking outcome to date.
Kenton Stufflebeam, who hails from Michigan, noticed that the Precambrian is, in bold print, “an era” according to the Museum of natural history’s tower of time, a display that’s been up since 1981. It’s not.
He says he noticed the mistake because his teacher comitted the same error in class before catching himself. The boy’s father, who didn’t comment, but I can imagine reacted about like I would have– “what in the world are you talking about? We’re in the Smithsonian! Ok, fine if it’s that important to you, we’ll fill out a comment card”– took him to the science desk, where the boy left his observation, and a mailing address.
You can imagine the shock–vindication for the boy– when a letter arrived last week telling Kenton he was “spot on” and that the mistake has been a pet peeve of the museum’s paleontologists for some time. They claim to not understand why it’s there in the first place, but have yet to be able to paint over the word “era.”
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April 4th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
My fifth grade student, Kenton Stufflebeam, received a letter from the Smithsonian last week. It was in response to his comment card left with a staff member during a visit to Washington, D.C. in December. The Smithsonian had labeled the Precambrian as the “Precambrian Era.” We had discussed this in Science class since I had done the same thing on my geologic time line on the bulletin board. I corrected it in front of the class and made a big deal about it. We showed the letter to our principal, Melissa Koenig, who wrote an article in the school newsletter on Friday, March 28. Mrs. Koenig and Kenton’s father talked about contacting our local paper for the story. Mr. Stufflebeam contacted the Kalamazoo Gazette who sent Rosemary Parker to our school for interviews on Tuesday, April 1. Two of Rosemary’s children had been in my fifth grade class in the ’90s. The Gazette featured the story on the front page Wednesday, April 2 and it went out on the Associated Press. Meanwhile, our local FOX 17 zoomed into town on Wednesday afternoon and became the first of several news features on television. The reporter told us he thought the story would go national. He was correct! On Friday evening, I watched online at Google as the story appeared in newspapers across the nation and received a phone call from Good Morning America at 11:00 p.m. Thursday was a whirlwind at school with a half-day for students and Parent/Teacher Conferences in the afternoon and evening. Our school had phone calls from all of the major news shows including NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX national news, Today Show, Ellen DeGeneres, Inside Edition, All Things Considered, Mitch Albom, and more! I hope Kenton makes an appearance on one of the shows since we are on Spring Break next week. He would be a fine participant on the show, “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader.” We have enjoyed our “15 minutes of fame” and I’m sure neither of us will ever forget this week!