Original Source Unknown
I have seen this over and over on social media. I can’t verify that it is a true document or a good fabrication. Snopes shows no UL results. It doesn’t really matter as it has made a statement. In fact many people have made their own statements about this document.
What I have to say doesn’t fit into a small comment field. There is so much more (in my opinion) going on here, I need a larger forum.
This is proposed to be the results of a test given to a second grader who is autistic. and these answers came “instantly” to his/her mind. Perhaps that is how autism works but I doubt anyone timed the effort required.
I have dear friends (several) who have children with autism. I am fascinated by how these autistic children and adults use their brain and mind. (Rainman -Autistic Savant) I am also understanding how the parent(s) and caregivers (that I know) who support and love these children. A disability does not mark one as worthless and useless.
I am writing this post because I too struggle with this document. Perhaps a touch of autism or savant lives within many of us. Especially those of us who have to decide between implied meaning and explicit meanings. It is call interpretation. I think we are all familiar with what was called “trick questions” in our trip through the education process.
The truth is teachers are human too. I have been faced many times with a do what I ask or do what I meant decision. I remember exams where I know what answer was intended but the question was poorly stated and would lead to a different solution. We normally solve that with a discussion for clarity, but a printed exam as above usually doesn’t provide for that kind of preliminary discussion.
So let’s examine this document.
To a majority of students the intent of this document is to, “List the horizontally placed words which are under the incomplete alphabet into the vertical column of underlined numbered blanks from 1 through 6 in alphabetical order of the first letter in each word starting with underlined space number 1 and continuing down the list.” Now that is the intent. I am glad we don’t usually have to be that specific. The requested operation is stated by a much shorter and implied “instruction” statement I call shorthand*.
It is also clear to me that the lesson here is to teach or reinforce the concept of alphabetical ordering of lists. The incomplete alphabet is a deplorable error on the part of the teacher.
The shorthand instruction is to “Write the following words in alphabetical order. (period)” with the bold text further explained.
The first word in the instruction is the first interpretation required. The act of writing a word requires assembling a number of letters one by one to form the word. The completion of the instruction says, “in alphabetical order.” Literally the student did what was asked but interpreted it as, Write the letters of the following words…”. I think most people can clearly see this.
We have no idea what verbal instructions and other key pieces of information were distributed buy individual or classroom interactions before the test was given to modify the strict interpretation. We also don’t know the time between verbal instruction and the test. The next day? Interpreting meaning is a key human trait and has been the argument for keeping humans (and their brains) in space flight and other relational decision making.
A more accurate instruction would be, “List the words on this page into alphabetical order.” It is the concept of ordered listing that I see being tested.
There is still a huge amount of information left out of the instruction. There is an inferred understanding how a numbered list corresponds to an alphabetic list. Is a 1, 2, 3 list similar to A, B, C? That seems to be the real learning intent here. I create many numbered lists where the items are not alphabetical. That’s why I use the numbers and sometimes bullet points.
So is Autism a disability? Yes, of course it is. Can we be amazed by how autistic people think? Absolutely! Is this an example of autism? Yes. Does the student deserve an “A+”? No, not for understanding ordered lists. Gaining fame for helping understanding autism? Yes, A+.
Many people including myself have disabilities. My peripheral nervous system is disabled. Disabilities are a condition of human existence. We don’t pretend we don’t have them but we make the best of what we have.
*In my childhood family (including parents) we often chided each other of talking in shorthand. One of us lost in our own thoughts would suddenly express something we were thinking that was totally meaningless to others. None of us were mind readers. So further explanation was required. “Oh, oh… I was just thinking about …” Tell me it hasn’t happened to you…