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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: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @02:26AM (7 children)
In the last decade I have noticed a significant decline in the readability of short lines of text, especially headlines.
Perhaps the problem is not with vocabulary, but with word order.
For instance: “NZ Petition to Pass Exam Over Trivial Meaning”. As it’s written, there’s potential for quite a bit of ambiguity over what it actually means.
Would make a lot more sense as, “ NZ students Petition to Pass Exam Over Meaning of the word trivial.”
Of course, headlines require an economy of words but also clarity of meaning.
Even more so for exam questions.
If the professional writers of headlines can’t do it what hope do we have for the lowly test makers?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @02:44AM (2 children)
> If the professional writers of headlines can’t do it
What makes you think that these professionals are still on the payroll (of your local newspaper, etc)?
My guess is that the race to the bottom (caused by internet and the demise of local papers?) means there are many fewer headline writers drawing a salary. You get what you pay for.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @03:53AM (1 child)
All the professionals left mainstream media. You'll find them on Consortium News, Alternet, WSWS, etc. The mainstream is nothing more than a propaganda outlet.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday November 18 2018, @10:01PM
Thanks Donald.
Well structured sentence by the way. Not like you at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @04:46AM
I've come to the conclusion that I lack the word juggling skills required to convey specific meaning in terse form for headlines.
I'll keep trying though.
At least I know what the word trivial means.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @06:20AM
Ever hear of "presbyopia"? I doubt if the high school kids have problems with seeing text, but if you are over 30, you could be having problems.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday November 18 2018, @06:45AM
That confusing headline is not in TFA. The AC submitter at SN wrote it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 19 2018, @07:38PM
"NZ Petition to Pass Exam Over Trivial Meaning" to me implies that the markings scheme was failing these students over a trivial meaning of an instruction (say something like "write your name in capitals on the front page", where they instead printed in normal case).