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posted by martyb on Saturday November 17 2018, @10:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the Eye-Kant-Speek-Gud dept.

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?


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  • (Score: 2) by jb on Monday November 19 2018, @07:55AM (1 child)

    by jb (338) on Monday November 19 2018, @07:55AM (#763817)

    Thanks -- I stand corrected.

    I got "National History" from TFA -- I know, silly me: should never read those ;)

    Still, the main point remains unchanged: if after 13 years of formal education, a substantial proportion of students still aren't familiar with as common a word as "trivial", clearly the system itself (the chosen curriculum and/or the way it's been taught) has failed so needs a major overhaul.

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  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday November 19 2018, @07:33PM

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday November 19 2018, @07:33PM (#763983)

    Maybe it does need an overhaul, I am unsure if the system is at fault after having children in it for nearly 20 years. Good teachers are good teachers whether the system is poor or not and my boys had a few.

    In my view the parents at are least partly at fault.