I was proctoring some tests....

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:35 pm

And a student came up to me with a multiple choice question, pointed to option D, and said, what does the word sentient mean? Option D was "Freedom is the Right of all Sentient Beings."

So two things:

1. I made that question for the prof several semesters ago. Ha!

2. American college students don't know the word "sentient."

If you're interested, the answer was B, "a penny saved is a penny earned" is a phrase associated with the Protestant Ethic.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 11:05 pm

You, sir, rock.

ruby_moon · Post by **ruby_moon** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 5:22 am

I am ashamed that someone around my age doesn't know what the word sentient means.
My "peers" surprise me regularly with the huge lack of age appropriate language skills.

Optimus Prime Rib · Post by **Optimus Prime Rib** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 3:21 pm

ruby_moon wrote:I am ashamed that someone around my age doesn't know what the word sentient means.
My "peers" surprise me regularly with the huge lack of age appropriate language skills.

omg totes no wut u meen.

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 4:21 pm

ruby_moon wrote:I am ashamed that someone around my age doesn't know what the word sentient means.
My "peers" surprise me regularly with the huge lack of age appropriate language skills.

Really, it's not that ANYONE that age should know the word sentient (although it would be nice). However, if society has judged your education thus far and said "Wow, you're such a good student, here's admission to a good university," THEN I think you should know the word sentient. At least know the test material enough to know "Hey, regardless of what this here word 'sentient' means, that CLEARLY has nothing to do with the mixture of asceticism and Calvinist predestination that gave rise to the Protestant Ethic" OR "Hey, isn't that what Optimus Prime said in that Transformer movie? Well, that must not be the right answer." Instead it was like, "this answer could be right or not, and it all depends on this word 'sentient.'"

ruby_moon · Post by **ruby_moon** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 9:09 pm

Shanti418 wrote:
ruby_moon wrote:I am ashamed that someone around my age doesn't know what the word sentient means.
My "peers" surprise me regularly with the huge lack of age appropriate language skills.
Really, it's not that ANYONE that age should know the word sentient (although it would be nice). However, if society has judged your education thus far and said "Wow, you're such a good student, here's admission to a good university," THEN I think you should know the word sentient. At least know the test material enough to know "Hey, regardless of what this here word 'sentient' means, that CLEARLY has nothing to do with the mixture of asceticism and Calvinist predestination that gave rise to the Protestant Ethic" OR "Hey, isn't that what Optimus Prime said in that Transformer movie? Well, that must not be the right answer." Instead it was like, "this answer could be right or not, and it all depends on this word 'sentient.'"

That's fair I guess. I just get so discouraged by the lack of not just common sense, but ability to puzzle out meanings. I was always taught that if you don't know a word, use context clues to figure it out. Not to mention that the answer was probably discussed in the lecture (if not specifically, the values that "a penny saved is a penny earned" reflect would have been.)

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 10:51 pm

Nice.