New Zealand has sunk to a new low in modern education. A number of high school students have started a petition to not be failed on a national history exam as they did not understand the meaning of the word 'trivial'. For those not in the know, trivial means "of little value or importance" which aptly describes this petition given that it is being made by grade 13 high school students who by all rights should know the meaning of this word. More than 2400 people have signed the petition 'expressing their frustration with the exam question'. Student Logan Stadnyk claimed that he was "lucky" to have known what the word meant, as half his class didn't. "New Zealand History Teachers' Association chairman Graeme Ball has sided with the students calling the exam a 'little bit of a snafu'" but not providing an adequate answer as to why students in grade 13 would not understand a common English word.
Have the three Rs lost all meaning in schools? Are we failing our students? Or is this just another case of today's teens being snowflakes?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday November 18 2018, @09:53PM (1 child)
We don't have High School seniors at all. These people are "Year 13" which means they are either 18, or very nearly 18.
The youngest zombie in fact sat this exam, and yes, he knows what trivial means, because he's an 18 year old with English as his first language.
Until I saw this story I would not have thought it possible to attain the age of 18, speaking english as your first language and not know what trivial meant.
In my view these students' parents ought to be ashamed of themselves.
(Score: 4, Informative) by driverless on Monday November 19 2018, @03:31AM
Going from this quote in the story:
I would say it's quite possible.
I'm also surprised that this person is taking a Year 13 exam, and not still stuck repeating something around Year 5. No Child left Behind, I guess.