Despotic tyranny ruined my life

[davywavy]

I don't know if you caught this one; A-level Modern History students complaining that their final exam was 'too hard' because it contained the question “How far do you agree that Hitler’s role 1933-45 was one of despotic tyranny?”.
Their complaint isn't about it being a badly worded question despite 'despot' and 'tyrant' being somewhat tautologous, but because they actually didn't know what despot or tyrant actually meant. A facebook group to protest about the question ("Despotic tyranny ruined my life") has over 1,600 members which, when you consider that 6,000 people took the exam, suggests that a quarter or more of 18 year old history students - people with a self-declared interest in the subject, who might want to study history at university and then get a job presenting Time Team - have a vocabulary which didn't include what I would consider fairly basic governmental terms for pretty much the entirety of recorded human history.

I can see them now; the massed ranks of students in the exam hall, pens a-quiver and eager of neuron to display their hard-gained knowledge. Then, the words "Turn your papers over now". A rustling fills the room followed by...silence. There, spitefully inserted into an A-Level history question about Hitler, the word 'Despot'. Their formerly gleaming eyes dull into glazed incomprehension. As one, their mouths fall open like so many fish and thin trickles of drool begin to collect in their laps. Once-pristine knuckles sprout thick hair and slip to rest upon the ground.

I'm hardly the sharpest tool in the box (my academic record speaks for itself in its unremitting mediocrity) but if I hadn't known what a Despot was when I was 18, I wouldn't have joined groups to complain about it; I'd've kept it damn quiet. I'd've been embarrassed. Perhaps I'd've thought that this gap in my knowledge was at least in part my own responsibility. I didn't even study History to that level, and I think there was little chance of my being asked about the despotic tyranny of Hydrogen over the periodic table in my Chemistry final.

I know some of you lot out there are teachers - what the devil? Can you shed any light on this for me?

Updated from cavalorn: Nice to see groups appearing expressing a contrary position.

Comments

Re: :p

[raggedyman.livejournal.com]

Okay, my analysis of it is that it may have started as a real group but has now been joined by a ton of trolls, tourists, and lulzers. There appears to be a core group of 40 or so active members, which if you apply the '1 in 10' rule of talking on a topic you care about then that gives you about 500 people who are likely to actually be affected.

If 6000 people took the exam (your figures) then that gives you about 8% of the total exam group who are either too thick to know what it meant,willing to use any excuse to try and get a pass grade, or are easily manipulated by their chums. It's also gives you 1000 members who can be explained as either unaffected friends who want to show support or people who heard about it and want to join in / cause trouble. As this group has got media attention then 1k tourists isn't too hard to imagine, especially when its a 'look at the stupid students!' story that people can end up feeling smug about (fuck, it made me feel like a fucking genius)

Re: :p

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Alas, not so; it appears that even the teachers are upset about it - and, in some cases, are admitting they do't know what it means themselves: http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=11550

Re: :p

[raggedyman.livejournal.com]

?? How does that make it an "Alas, no so" ?? You telling me this (http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/object3/1755/107/n91092671869_1074.jpg) and this (http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs086.snc1/4607_194982015065_534060065_7182094_2922049_n.jpg) aren't troll sign, or that half the comments are now people going 'jesus, you guys are sure stupid'?

Re: :p

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd suggest that if the teachers themselves are saying 'half my pupils panicked', then the incidence of ignorance isn't as low as the 8% you cite.

Re: :p

[raggedyman.livejournal.com]

gotcha :-)
yeah, my ratios are most likely off kilter but my basic theory of 'at least as many trolls, tourists, and lulzers as affected peoples' for that FB group (currently) holds water.

Re: :p

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I'm not disagreeing with you about the population of the FB group; my assumption is that if x number of people are willing to set up and join a pointless protest group, then the total number of people who feel that way will be at least 3X. As such, if 500 people on the FB group are genuine, then the total number of complainants will be about 1500-ish?

Re: :p

[raggedyman.livejournal.com]

by your maths that would be right.
Fuck, we're doomed :-(

Re: :p

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to say my maths is purely back of fag packet assumptions based on numbers plucked out of the air. I'm just assuming that a lot of people who agree just won't bother to join protest groups.

Re: :p

[glummdead.livejournal.com]

From what I could see, it looked like there were only a few dedicated piss takers.

Also, the history teacher forum is astounding, in that it is filled with bad spelling and poor sentence construction;

"I feel desparately sorry for the students"

"most low ability A2 students would have stood very littler chance with that wording."

Cripes.

Re: :p

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

This is the thing. The government takes money off me and tells me it will educate my kids. In the real world, if I give people money for a service nd the service they provide sucks, I can stop paying and take my custom elsewhere - maybe even get my money back if I bitch loudly enough.
With state services, I've got no choice at all - if I happen to live in the catchment area for a crap school, well, that's my tough luck. I'll just have to keep paying to watch my kids getting a rotten education with no way out whatsoever.

Re: :p

[glummdead.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. The only thing this sorry little episode has highlighted is not that some students who don't know the meaning of a word, and can't infer the meaning from other similar words, are perhaps too stupid to know when to stop crying. What is highlighted, as one blog commentator puts it, is:

"that poorly educated pupils are sitting poorly thought out exams which are then poorly marked."