PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Right now, panel, time for you to answer some questions about this week's news. Roy, fourth-graders in Texas were recently asked a reading comprehension question where the kids are told a story and asked what it means. In this case, the story was about a family facing a problem. What was the problem?
ROY BLOUNT JR.: The problem was that they couldn't find - they found most of their guns, but one of them was...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Well, don't think so much about Texas. Although...
BLOUNT: Oh.
SAGAL: ...The fourth-graders who gave the tests were in Texas. Think about, say, "Melrose Place."
BLOUNT: I don't know what that means.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Well, how about...
BRIAN BABYLON: Oh, you mean Monopoly? Is that a Monopoly thing?
SAGAL: No.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Maybe a more - maybe a more - maybe a reference more appropriate to your generation - think "Peyton Place."
BLOUNT: "Peyton Place." Ooh. Ha ha.
(LAUGHTER)
BLOUNT: Fourth-graders and "Peyton Place."
SAGAL: Yes, that's the problem. Well, basically it's about a wife.
BLOUNT: Yeah.
SAGAL: And she discover something in the story problem for the fourth-graders. What does she discover?
BLOUNT: That her husband has been up to something?
SAGAL: Exactly right.
BLOUNT: Oh.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Adultery is the problem.
BLOUNT: Oh, my Lord.
SAGAL: The fourth-graders read about a married woman name Ruby who found a hair clip she didn't recognize...
BLOUNT: Ah.
SAGAL: ...On quote, "the bed she shared with her husband, Mike."
O'CONNOR: Woah.
BLOUNT: Woah.
SAGAL: The 9-year-olds were then asked to explain why Ruby got so upset. The correct answer - Mike was cheating on Ruby with another woman, which was confusing to 9-year-olds.
BABYLON: But you know what? You know what?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Cheating on what? Candyland?
(LAUGHTER)
BABYLON: But they should of got it 'cause at the end of the problem, it was like, (imitating "Jerry Springer" audience) Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, Jerry.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I know. It does seem like a reading comprehension test is the wrong way to introduce children to the cold reality of adult life. Like, how about if it's math. If a train carrying daddy leaves the station at 5...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...Traveling 60 miles per hour, how much time does it...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: How much time does mommy have to meet with the mailman before daddy gets back?
(LAUGHTER)
BLOUNT: We didn't have any at all spicy magazines around the house when I was in fourth grade. But we had the Lady's Home Journal. And there was a column in there called "Can This Marriage Be Saved?"
O'CONNOR: Yes.
SAGAL: Really?
BLOUNT: And it scared the pee out of me every time.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Why?
BLOUNT: Well, I was like, marriages can be lost? What is this? Or are my parents doing this? Surely not. Oh, God.
(LAUGHTER)
BABYLON: I can just see Roy reading that like, oh, girl, mm.
(LAUGHTER)
BLOUNT: What you going to do?
O'CONNOR: At age 9.
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