<p>So some penny-ante professor decides its time to play Jeopardy in his classroom and then is surprised that a bunch of students paying for an elite college education don’t want to play? “Impromptu oral quiz”, my eye. Pitiful.</p>
<p>Reminds me of something I wrote recently about a 5-year-old (true story):</p>
<p>"A friend of mine, a homeschooling mom, related the following incident to me. She had gone to a local corner grocery with her five-year-old son at 11 o’clock in the morning and, it being a “school day”, the shopkeeper asked the boy where he went to school.</p>
<p>“I homeschool,” the boy replied proudly.</p>
<p>“Oh, I see,” said the shopkeeper. “Can you count to ten?”</p>
<p>Homeschool mom’s first response, of course, was to be offended. How dare a perfect stranger feel entitled to go about testing her five year old simply because they went shopping together at 11 o’clock in the morning? The nerve! What an outrage! How would he like to be tested by anyone who happens to cross his path?</p>
<p>Had this gone on much longer, there would have been red and black smoke emerging from her ears and nostrils. But then she looked down at her son. He was taking too much time to answer the question. “Come on, Billy,” she thought, you can count to ten. I know you can.” Her palms began to sweat. It was not her son who was being tested, but she herself! Legs a little rubbery. Her self-esteem, her very identity as a homeschooling parent was on trial, and might be found wanting. “Come on, Billy,” she would have prayed, except she wasn’t the praying sort, “Answer the man.”</p>
<p>Billy had his hands in his pocket, and was seemingly bashfully looking down at the floor. At last he picked up his head, looked at the shopkeeker, and in a small, thoughtful voice, asked,</p>
<p>“Would you like me to count to ten in English, French, German, Russian, or Japanese?”</p>