Are you smarter than a 2nd grader?

If you work where I do, apparently not. Hence, the occupation listed on my profile: mis-educator of America's youth. Here's some background that quickly becomes relevant - my favorite part of my job is going through the mail that comes to our PO Box.

We once received complaints that the wise men and shepherds on our Christmas cards looked like terrorists. We also get an alarmingly large amount of mail from various correctional facilities around the country. In fact, in the latest batch there was a letter from a correctional facility in Illinois and New York. Scary.

But the best thing we've ever gotten was the large packet of letters from a class of second graders in Lyons, KS (here's the mis-education part). They wrote to point out: Birds are NOT mammals. Yes, in our book "Birds: Wonders of Wildlife" (which I can at least say was produced before I started working here), we made the rather outrageous claim that birds are mammals. Here's a sampling of what 2nd graders think about that:

"You made a slight (!) mistake in the book...I am sorry but I bet you will get it next time. I know some facts about birds. Birds can fly." Not all birds can fly, smarty pants.

"You have made a huge mistake." Simple, I like it.

"It says birds are one of the most fascinating mammals on earth. Yes birds are fascinating, but they're not mammals." Very diplomatic.

"You have made a mistake in your book but mistakes happen to everyone. It's ok." Winner for most compassionate.

"Mammals have hair, not birds." This is my favorite, because of the funny syntax error. Get it? Mammals don't have...never mind. I'm a dork.

Here's the thing, though. Once I got to thinking about it, I couldn't figure out what birds actually are. I also made the mistake of saying that frogs were reptiles, totally forgetting about amphibians. Not my finest moment. So after some research, I have learned that birds are considered aves, like dogs are considered mammals. I have to give that explanation because now I don't know if these labels (aves, mammals, amphibians, reptiles) are classes, species, genuses, or what. Looks like I have some more research to do.