# Are you wiser than a 5th grader? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 20, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wiser-than-a-5th-grader/540175 "2010-05-20T20:09:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wiser-than-a-5th-grader/540175/21 "2010-05-31T16:27:38Z")
I just asked my ten-year-old daughter the question about stealing the loaf of bread. She was sitting on the kitchen table in her footie pajamas eating Apple Jacks and watching Pokemon on TV. Here’s how the conversation went: “I have a question for you. Suppose a person’s family is starving and he steals a loaf of bread to survive. Would that be wrong?” She thought for a bit. “What kind of bread was it and where did he steal it from?” “It’s a hypothetical question. Can you explain how that would make a difference?” “Well, if he stole fancy bread from a fancy restaurant, that would be wrong. But if it was just plain bread it wouldn’t be.” “You mean that if he stole more than just what he needed to keep his family from starving, that would be wrong?” “Yeah. Or if he stole plain bread from another poor family that really needed it. That would be wrong too.” Hmmmm … sounds like pretty sophisticated moral reasoning to me. So much for ten-year-olds not being capable of understanding shades of gray … . ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wiser-than-a-5th-grader/540175/22 "2010-05-31T17:46:52Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > I just asked my ten-year-old daughter the question about stealing the loaf of bread. She was sitting on the kitchen table in her footie pajamas eating Apple Jacks and watching Pokemon on TV. Here’s how the conversation went: > > “I have a question for you. Suppose a person’s family is starving and he steals a loaf of bread to survive. Would that be wrong?” > > She thought for a bit. “What kind of bread was it and where did he steal it from?” > > “It’s a hypothetical question. Can you explain how that would make a difference?” > > “Well, if he stole fancy bread from a fancy restaurant, that would be wrong. But if it was just plain bread it wouldn’t be.” > > “You mean that if he stole more than just what he needed to keep his family from starving, that would be wrong?” > > “Yeah. Or if he stole plain bread from another poor family that really needed it. That would be wrong too.” > > Hmmmm … sounds like pretty sophisticated moral reasoning to me. So much for ten-year-olds not being capable of understanding shades of gray … . That’s not fair. You just have a smart 10 year old. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wiser-than-a-5th-grader/540175/23 "2010-06-03T16:12:23Z")
> [@Why is ignorance of age not an excuse?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ignorance-of-age-not-an-excuse/538677/479): > > There is absolutely no way that even the most precocious eleven year old could pass as a sixteen year old, still less eighteen, in any serious conversation. They just don’t understand things in the same way as adults. > > Simple but famous example - get them to consider a starving man stealing bread to feed his family. They’ll all claim it is wrong (except for the sociopathic bastards that so many of the child “geniuses” turn out to be, who won’t even understand that concept)… they just don’t get shades of grey. So I asked Bricker Jr this question, and he said: “It’s sort of wrong, because whoever had the bread should get to keep it, but a good man could still be good and steal it. You know, like Jean Valjean did.” (I should point out that _Les Miserables_ is on my iPod, and gets played when he’s in the car, so he knows the whole story – or at least the whole story from the musical.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-wiser-than-a-5th-grader/540175.md?page=1)