Shiksha Opinion: Are you smarter than a 9 year old?

We are often taught things in school which we simply mug up and in due course of time we very conveniently forget. And this thought came to us on a regular office day when a colleague of mine shared that her niece is extremely good at GK and wins almost every contest. It didn’t end there, she threw some questions at us and when we couldn’t answer fast enough, we realised that in the hunt to possess more and more information, we had forgotten some really basic things we learnt at school.

So, we quickly created a list of questions and thereafter questioned few 8-12 year olds, after whom we asked the same questions from around 10 students who are pursuing UG courses and trust us when we say that the answers left us in splits.

The general find was that all the school students (we spoke to) were extremely confident and eager to respond with either the correct answer or a simple – we don’t know, on the other hand, UG students went into a distant planet trying to think and then re-think what the answer to these questions could be.

Also, it is one thing to give wrong answers and get over with it but UG students did not shy away from giving us some hilarious made-up answers as well.

 On asking which is the national anthem of India, Ayush Singh, a first year BSc student from BHU very confidently replied – “arre who wala jo Bankim Chandra Chatterjee ne likha hai”. Further, when we asked him who the first president of India was, he thought for some time and said “Pandit Prasad”. Another student, Ashish was quick to answer most questions but went a little off-board with the name of the first president saying it was “MSK Prasad”.

Next we spoke to Neeta Kainth, who informed us that Lance Armstrong had invented something and was quick to reply back with – “I don’t know” when we asked her other questions like why a leap year occurred, where Shajahanabad was and which state’s vehicles have the number plate ‘ML’.

Divyam Negi, a mass communication student who recently graduated from IP University gave us the most interesting answers. On being asked why a leap year occurred he shared that, “mann karta hoga Earth ka to have more than 365 days” and as per this young lad the southernmost point of India is Tamil Nadu or Kerala. He even went on record to say that all cars from Managlore have ‘ML’ as their number plate. But he scored the highest marks from us for listing the seven northeastern states. He was quick to share that he didn’t know all the states and went on to answer this question with names of states like Punjab and Rajasthan. My question here was – Is there some medication to deal with shock?

But not all students were clueless, Sarah Khan from DU knew almost all answers expect for where Shahjahanabad is and she was confident enough in admitting she had never heard of such a place. But when I insisted she went on to make a wild guess saying it can be the former name of Agra.

Am sure by this time you must be really curious regarding what we asked students. So, let us give you a sneak peek into the questions we asked and the most common answers we got:

Question	Answers by 8-12 year olds	Answers by UG students
Why is republic day celebrated?	Republic day is celebrated on January 26 when the Constitution of India was adopted. It happened on 26 January 1950.	India’s constitution was made.
Which is the national anthem and national song of India?	National Anthem of India is Jaana Gaana Maana. It was written by Rabindra Nath Tagore. National Song is Vande Mataram whichw as written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee.	National Anthem: Jaana Gaana Maana National Song: Saare Jahan se achha
What happened on January 30?	Gandhiji was assassinated by Nathuram Godse.	Gandhi Jayanti
Where is Shahjahanabad?	I don’t know.	In Pakistan
Which gas is emitted from ACs and refrigerators?	Harmful gases which affect Ozone layer.	Carbon Monoxide
What is a leap year and why does this phenomenon occur?	Leap year is one in which February has 29 days. It occurs because of Earth’s revolution.	It comes in four years and don’t really know the reason for the occurrence.
Who is Lance Armstrong?	He is an athlete.	He was the first man to go into space.
Who was the first president of India?	Dr Rajendra Prasad	Rajendra Prasad
Which is the southernmost point of India?	Indira Point	Kanyakumari
Who is Dhyanchand?	Major Dhyanchand was a famous hockey player.	Sports person
From which state are the vehicles which have the number plate ‘ML’?	I don’t know	Don’t know
Name the 7 Northeastern states of India.	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura	Mostly answered with Assam and Sikkim. Rest they said they didn’t know.

So, this little exercise got me thinking, do we simply get dumber with age or is there a general feeling among students that some things are not worth retaining. That is the consensus; we at shiksha.com could finally come to when we got proof that 8-12 year olds are actually smarter than our super-stylish UG students.

I know it is not mandatory for us to know some things about the world we live in but trust me when I say – An informed person will always see more success than a person with the chalta hai attitude.

We as a race are getting dumber with each passing year and it is high time we realise this and make amends before it is too late.