Are You Smarter than a Third Grader?

I had the great fun of visiting my daughter last week who lives in Atlanta and teaches in Decatur - third grade. For the past many years, she has taught second grade, so this was a new and very enlightening experience for her. When my kids were young, I used to substitute in their elementary school, third grade was always my favorite and I realize it still is! The kids are old enough to be independent and young enough to still think their teacher and school is cool! School has changed drastically since I was a student and also since I was a teacher. Classrooms are a thing of beauty.

with learning centers....
curtains on the windows (I made those years ago and they're still going strong).
Soft lighting in every corner of the room.
Water bottles on every desk, tennis balls on chair legs to keep the noise level down and floors unscratched.
And an active board - not a blackboard like in my day nor a greenboard like in my daughter's day or even a dry erase board. This active board is just amazing - it's huge, you can write on it, change things, erase things.
and all generated through an Apple computer. Wow.
The first week of school, my daughter read them a story about "It's okay to be....." and so they made a paper quilt with self portraits about themselves and one important fact about what it was okay to be - everything from talented to small to being an artist.
The students had to figure out how to put it together which they did in a clever way using yard and a hole punch.
It was amazing and fun to see the many changes that schools have undergone.  Just about everything EXCEPT ...School lunches - well......some things never change!
And in answer to my question - Are you smarter than a third grader? - in my case, Not even close!