This came to me via The Daily Kos. Snopes rated the exhibits as “probably true” but there are a few items on these sheets that make me question their authenticity. I want to believe this is legitimate but I wonder: Would you title your quiz, “4th Grade Science Quiz”? Why would a quiz on “Dinosaurs: Genesis and the Gospel” ask a question from the Book of Job? And doesn’t the whole quiz, even with missing questions, smack of profiling the religious right, hitting all the good progressive talking points? Even if the points are true, they still seem a little too easy. But then I stop myself and recall that this is a church school in South Carolina and conclude that rational thinking is not expected of me. It just might be valid.
For those who are interested: 4th graders would be about 9 years old and dinosaurs are generally interesting to 7 year olds. It might not be significant or it might suggest a lag in the development of children educated in religious schools. The quiz, however, does conform to the modern tendency to avoid cursive writing and go with the ease and readability of block printing (though, is that blacked-out “Name” done in script?). Not to sound too dumb, but is the average size of a dinosaur actually the size of a sheep? And finally, was that one question on fossils so hard that they printed the correct answer using capital letters as a hint?
A Celebration of Reading 