What, exactly, _is_ "Fifth Grade level?" I recall having been told, (rather, my parents were told; in those days children were talked _about_, not to) when I was in Fifth grade, that I was reading "at the high school senior level." Considering the intervening decline and dumbing-down of US education, the _average_ high school senior today probably would do well to read at the level of the _average_ Fifth grader of that time. Once again we see the wisdom of John Silber's existential riddle about "higher education": "Higher than what?"