• ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.orgEnglish
      5 months

      FTFY:

      5. the
      6. the

      The alphabet provided ends with X. However, you apparently remove duplicates so maybe just cross out the last row?

      • BillyClark@piefed.socialEnglish
        5 months

        One important skill for school is to look at the entire question so that you can understand what the teacher is asking for, even if they don’t format the question exactly right.

        In this case, your answer would not fit into the 6 spaces provided for the answer.

        So you have to ask yourself what they meant by “Write the following words”. Since “the” is the same word repeated twice, once you’ve written “the” after 5, then I could argue that “the” has already been written.

        Therefore, if there are only six blanks for the answer, looking at the entire question, I argue that the answer I provided is most likely correct.

        • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.orgEnglish
          5 months

          You’ll satisfy the teacher as often as possible and get good grades. I want to feel right as often as possible, which means I’ll disrupt the class often and get called out during the parents-teachers meeting.

    • melfie@lemy.loldeleted by creator
      5 months

      Correct. It’s obviously supposed to be an ordered set, and that’s why there are 6 slots for 6 unique words.

  • wewbull@feddit.ukEnglish
    5 months

    The question is poorly worded. It asks for words in the order they come in the alphabet. Words aren’t in the alphabet. Letters are in the alphabet, so they reordered the letters.

    • floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      5 months

      That’s not being pedantic, it’s just wrong. Do you not call the order of words in a dictionary “alphabetical order”?

      • wewbull@feddit.ukEnglish
        5 months

        Of course, but this is a 6? year old. Read the question as a child would.

        Put the following words in alphabetical order

        All fine, but if they don’t know the word “alphabetical” the clarification is…

        (The order they come in the alphabet)

        Confusing. “They” refers to the words and alphabet contains letters. If it had been “dictionary” and not “alphabet” then that would be clear.

    • communism@lemmy.ml
      5 months

      It might not be autism, it might be just lacking context as to what they mean. The kid is likely very young so they might not know what alphabetical order means. It’s a reasonable guess given the lack of explanation in the worksheet.

  • aaaaaaaaargh@feddit.org
    5 months

    With more than three repetitions of the same algorithm the kid should’ve been automating the process.

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5 months

    It makes sense if not taught the conventions of alphabetizing first. Kids don’t know what they don’t know.

    Mr. Rogers understood this on a deep level.

    • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
      5 months

      Honestly the question as asked is unambiguous: “write words in alphabetical order” cannot mean anything else than apple, fox, log, pond, pumpkin, river. If what was provided here were the expected answer, the wording should be “write each of the following words with its letters sorted by alphabetical order”.

      • Michal@programming.dev
        5 months

        Could be understood as “take these words, and write them out in alphabetical order”. It’s not specifically stated whether letters inside those words should also be sorted or not.

        We take it for granted that we have so much experience communicating, we can infer the meaning without full instruction, but children are still acquiring this knowledge and sometimes take things literally with hilarious results.

        • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
          5 months

          Of course, not blaming children for misunderstanding this; but if this were a software requirement, an adult software developer should be able to understand it correctly.

  • CidVicious@piefed.zipEnglish
    5 months

    Completely misunderstanding the requirements? Yeah that’s a dev alright.

      • WalrusDragonOnABike [they/them]@reddthat.com
        5 months

        Are you asking if I was confused how they did something wrong? Yes.

        Are you asking if “apple, fox, log, pond, pumpkim, river” was the intended answer? Also probably yes (but I didn’t make it, so I can’t be sure).

        • marlowe221@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5 months

          I was sent to the principals office several times in elementary school because my teachers thought I was trying to be a smart ass. Because I would do what they literally, exactly asked me to do, and not what they apparently meant.

          I was always very confused because I honestly believed I was doing my best to follow instructions.

          It didn’t help that I grew up in the American southeast, a region where patterns of speech are very indirect and lean heavily on idioms and metaphors.

          I was in middle school before I figured out what was happening and did not get into trouble in that way anymore. I’m in my 40s now but I’m still a literal-first thinker. And yeah, I’m a programmer.

          • WalrusDragonOnABike [they/them]@reddthat.com
            5 months

            As a child, I’d probably get from context what was actually wanted since it probably complemented in-class lessons. But in primary school, I also sometimes liked to push the limits of what was asked. So I might do this and also put what was intended to the side.

    • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
      5 months

      I couldn’t figure out what the clue was that the kid would be a programmer. Surely any kid could have gotten this right? Then I read your comment and it all made sense. Thank you.

      And yes, yes I am a programmer.

    • psud@aussie.zoneEnglish
      5 months

      Are you sure? Apple is crossed out (presumably as a hint to cross them out as you add them to the list)