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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: 3, Insightful) by Fluffeh on Wednesday November 21 2018, @10:48PM
Totally agree.
I would consider that list of signatures a list of people to never hire, and probably avoid in general.
At that age, you're an adult and you don't understand a common word - okay, sure it might be that you were never specifically TAUGHT that word. I don't recall ever going into class and reading pages of the dictionary to learn all the words either, but to basically reject any ownership of your shortcomings and DEMAND you are marked up without merit of being able to answer a question correctly? That's just downright embarrassing and as far as I am concerned, perfectly indicative of how you will react to potential poor performance in the future.