Feedback Loop: The Hare And The Pineapple

New York Department of Education

The New York education department released the controversial The Hare and the Pineapple reading test section Friday.

Monday’s post about New York’s education department officials throwing out the now-infamous “The Hare and the Pineapple” section of its statewide reading was a lesson in reading comprehension itself.

Readers disagreed on whether the section of the test was fair or not.

Alejandro Roggio thought the passage and questions were fine:

I don’t see what the problem is. The questions seem to have fair answers.

The animals obviously ate the pineapple because they were annoyed. They were obviously nor amused, excited or happy because they all wagered the pineapple would win. Due to him losing, they were all annoyed. The key is that they weren’t “upset” at the outcome because they all genuinely wanted the hare to win. They thought they outsmarted the pineapple when they in fact ended up looking like fools. It annoyed them. So they ate him.

As for “who is the wisest?”, you have to choose between the hare, the moose, the crow and the owl. The hare never did anything to claim wisdom especially when you consider the fact he wanted to race a legless fruit. The crow made up a conspiracy theory that backfired in his face and made every animal look foolish. He was obviously not wise. And there isn’t even an owl in the story. The moose however told the crow that “pineapples don’t have sleeves”. He was right.

Guest urged people to remember that the test is being taken by younger students:

Clearly to a functioning adult male like yourself, the answers are clear. Keep in mind that this exam is being taken by middle school children, who aren’t as adept at answering questions as such. Not to mention how absurd the passage was as a whole. And as a matter of fact, they did mention an owl. What may be obvious to you is not to a child of 12 or 13.

And Ksideman pointed out a crucial fact:

Not only is there an owl in the story, but “the owl” was given as the right answer by the state when they published the questions and answers.  I guess it’s not as obvious as you think!

Which kind of makes the point, don’t you think?