I was at Barnes and Noble today and the quiz bowl team for a local high school was there. They were holding practice quizzes and trying to get customers to compete. Most customers refused and one of the kids pleaded with me, so I agreed to participate. My daughter was a member of the quiz bowl team in middle school so at least I knew what it was all about. (I thought I was going to embarrass myself since it has been 30 years since high school and only slightly less since college)

The two teams consisted of 3 high school students and 2 customers each. (5 on each team). It was actually pretty evenly matched. We were tied all the way to the end. The questions covered a wide variety of subjects: history, literature/mythology, geography, sports, current events, general knowledge (which consisted mostly of medical questions), and fine arts.

I was actually quite impressed with the students' general knowledge. They were fast on the buzzer too (which seemed to be the deciding factor as to who got the point since everyone seemed to know most of the answers). However, believe it or not, my team won! This is the part you will find interesting: the tie breaker questions were on famous quotes. Not only did the students not know the answer that won the round for my team, they didn't know ANY of the answers (they were easy ones like quotes by Henry Ford, Shakespeare, Plato, and Gandhi) . I knew 4 out of the 5 questions (I missed the quote by Lucretius - I thought it was Horace) and surprisingly, the question that won it for my team was this one:

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

which all of the students thought was Voltaire (at least they were familar with the name). I was the only one who knew it was Evelyn Beatrice Hall (although the teacher had it wrong, because he had the answer written down as Stephen G. Tallentyre which was a pseudonym and it was even more disappointing that he didn't know the answer).

I thought it was pretty hilarious that it was famous quotes that won the round (given our recent discussion and you mentioning Voltaire), but even more sad that the kids were so weak in that area.