Is there a particular reason that child geniuses are burdened with learning such banal topics as world capital?

Ah, well learning is a process, and I doubt if I could have found how to get to Entebbe gardens if I didn't know about Kampala first! Having said which, I can read maps and usually research much of what I need before I get there.

Sure, geography, like other subjects, can suffer from having a phase of rote learning, but if it's later backed up by more extensive knowledge and *understanding*, then we could regard it as a simple first step.

We all live in a world that is so huge we can't ever visit all of it, but sometimes we are called upon to make decisions that can affect other far-off people, such as voting for a government with a particular foreign policy, or supporting or volunteering for a charity that helps people elsewhere. For this reason it's useful to know things about the world, though simply knowing the capital is fairly useless in itself.

Learning anything without understanding is of very limited use, if any. Understanding and critical thought are of key importance, though it can take kids a while to get to the point of coping with that.

Hence leaning countries and capitals is a very basic first step, as there has to be one. Without further steps, e.g. leading to an understanding of Uganda's economy under Museveni, the LRA war in the Acholi north, or even Uganda's role in the overthrow of Zaire's Mobutu and the consequent issues in DR Congo, it's useless.

It's probably a bit different from learning the books in the bible, as that's more like memorising poetry. It can be a fascinating subject for those interested, as a body of work of cultural importance, but it has close to zero practical value, even less than learning capitals.

It can sometimes be used to teach a version of morality, but as this is usually a constrained morality based on bronze-aged social standards, it has not much value compared to current moral standards which are better taught at a secular level. I think that's one of the reasons that there are proportionally more theists in jail than in society as a whole.

So IMO, memorising capitals are slightly more important than bible books, but not much.

The Stanford Binet is an adequate test to measure a kids IQ. Many school districts use them. It has some abstract reasoning and problem solving portions as well as working memory and visual motor skills. I can agree that the child doing so well on it is exceptional, given her age. By the way she got in based on her IQ from that test, not a Mensa test.

I do agree with you though in that rote memorization is just about a complete waste of time. Hopefully they will guide this child's potential into something better than that.

Edit: I need to add that I also hope they don't totally ruin her childhood by placing great demands on her. Should she be solving physics problems when she is three or playing in the mud...thats a higher priority to me.

Your first answer actually points out to the problem quite clearly but in a way she didn't mean too. I only needed read her first line and already she is insulting others, which in turn shows her own insecurity in her ideas. Rather ironic. Thing is people believe very strongly on these topics and they have such a major day to day impact that it's hard to remain dispastionate about them. Me I'm off in my own pasture when it comes to religion so it's easier for me to talk religion than most for whom it is a clear cut this is how it is kind of thing. Politics is even worse. Even without the aid of politicians politics usually comes down to a contest for resources between various segments of society. Somebody has to lose in such a contest and the impact on people's lives is fairly dramatic in a negative way most of the time as most of the time both sides lose in such contests. Socialized medicine for example would completely deny all health care to me in this country before the ink was dry on the bill. There would be one rule or another that would exclude me from using Federal subsidized health care and because of the massive tax increases necessary to fund it and the huge paperwork burden placed upon health care providers paying cash for health care would no longer be an option. As such I have a vital stake in opposing socialized medicine. When I mean vital I mean socialized medicine is literally an attempt to kill me. Hard enough to get health care now without insurance but to have to bow and scrape and modify my life would be even more difficult. Then owing child support or owing on a student loan or being convicted of a certain crime or failing to eat a prescribed diet or failing to do something or another would leave far more people without health care coverage than the current system, on top of that it would make it nearly impossible those not covered to get health care. If that's not attempted mass murder I don't know what is. See how easy it is to get emotionally entangled in politics. How much is at state. That is why it's a bad topic in a neutral environment such as a party or wedding or something like that. I could have used a dozen examples and riled up one side or both sides on issues. Once asked a question here on YA just to point out how both sides on abortion have nonsensical aspects of their stances. Managed to rile quite a few people with that one, surprised it wasn't deleted :)

I find that learning of any kind is not a waste. Knowing the world you live in is only a small part of an education. If you are or own such a genius, then I suggest you home school them to make sure you do not bore them with such trivial info. Maybe you could just teach them to play video games..

America spends 10 times as much money on having low mental capacity kids learn biology than having high mental capacity kids get a doctrine

go figure... thats how many billion dollars on remedial classes?

so, you heard someone use the word "banal" in a sentence and you think it would be interesting to try to use it here . . . . I'd check the definition next time.

edit: I know who I am . . . .do you know who you are? But, at least you have used the proper context for the term "banal" this time.

It's easier to make kids memorize pointless facts then instill actual knowledge. What with state supported education these days there's no competition and therefore no incentive to actually be any good.

They will learn oodles more as they grow. You have to start with basics, you can't just throw quantum mechanics at a 5 year old genius (well you could, but I doubt they would grasp half of it).

You could win the National Geographic Bee and win a $25,000 scholarship, if you're in 4th-8th grade.

PS The capital of Uganda is Kampala. :)

Those child geniuses do both. They know useless and useful information.