After a history test, Mr. Johnson called Johnny to his desk with a troubling suspicion. Johnny looked astonished: if his teacher thought he had cheated, he wanted evidence. Mr. Johnson pointed out that Mary, the girl sitting beside him, had named George Washington as the first president—and Johnny had written exactly the same thing. Johnny wasn’t impressed. Everyone knew that answer. Next came the question about who freed the slaves. Both students had answered Abraham Lincoln. Again, Johnny had an explanation ready: he had read his history book the night before.

But Mr. Johnson wasn’t finished. He turned to the question asking who was president during the Louisiana Purchase. This time, Mary hadn’t supplied a historical name for Johnny to defend as common knowledge. Instead, she had simply written, “I don’t know.” And beneath that same question on Johnny’s paper sat the answer that undid his entire defense: “Me neither.”READ MORE BELOW