3 ms·

Consider the word "regatta". Someone affluent may have been to such a boating event, or at least heard of it. Someone poor, unless they were extremely well read

Consider the word "regatta". Someone affluent may have been to such a boating event, or at least heard of it. Someone poor, unless they were extremely well read, would not have had the same opportunity to know the word as someone affluent.

kbutler 9y ago
Cub scouts tend to have one every year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raingutter_regatta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raingutter_regatta But the elite catamaran style tends to dominate over the standard design. But yes, there are concepts that allow a single question to be preferential to people of specific backgrounds.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  And until very recently, gay people weren't allowed to join the scouts.
  - kbutler 9y ago
    I guess a non-affluent, prepubescent (cub scouts are 7-10 years old), gay boy might have missed that chance to learn the word "regatta".
- colomon 9y ago
  There's also the Royal St. John's Regatta [1], the oldest annual sporting event in North America. The day of the race is a holiday in St. John's (if weather permits boat races) so everyone in town knows about it. (There's a Dingle Regatta in Ireland, there's a famous dance tune named after it but I've not been to Dingle and don't know what their regatta is actually like.) Come to think of it, for all the talk of recognizing the word as a class thing, isn't it much more likely to be an "old coastal area" thing? You might need to be fairly rich to have a sailboat to race, but every place I've been around boat races it's been a huge party environment with very broad appeal and probably 100% local recognition. They're just not called regattas in Michigan... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_St._John%27s_Regatta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_St._John%27s_Regatta
DonHopkins 9y ago
I remember having to ask the teacher to explain a word problem that involved a baseball player hitting "a double" and "a triple", because I had no clue what that meant. That test discriminated against nerds who don't give a shit about baseball.
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  Sports questions were added to IQ tests to make them harder for women, according (if memory serves) to a BBC documentary on stupidity. (Fairly fascinating, though packed sufficiently with examples of its topic to make it painful to watch.) http://www.earthprotect.com/index.php/media-gallery/mediaitem/251-bbc-documentary-stupidity-full-movie http://www.earthprotect.com/index.php/media-gallery/mediaite...
  - DonHopkins 9y ago
    Drat, that video is not available. (At least not in my area.) But I'll dig around for it now that I know the title. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ82lJkR-OQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ82lJkR-OQ >This documentary about stupidity tells us the history of the word "moron" ... That's so relevant now that we all know the Secretary of State called the President of the United States a "Fucking Moron", and nobody challenged or disagreed with him, because they all knew he was right.
    - dredmorbius 9y ago
      Yeah, I'm aware the video itself isn't available. I'd run across it on YouTube a while back, though that version is also down. I've not found a canonical link via the BBC yet though I'd expect there is one.
walshemj 9y ago
Well should not schools be trying to widen all their students reading ability? is this not a given if you want to goto university
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

kbutler 9y ago

Cub scouts tend to have one every year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raingutter_regatta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raingutter_regatta But the elite catamaran style tends to dominate over the standard design. But yes, there are concepts that allow a single question to be preferential to people of specific backgrounds.

DonHopkins 9y ago
And until very recently, gay people weren't allowed to join the scouts.
- kbutler 9y ago
  I guess a non-affluent, prepubescent (cub scouts are 7-10 years old), gay boy might have missed that chance to learn the word "regatta".
colomon 9y ago
There's also the Royal St. John's Regatta [1], the oldest annual sporting event in North America. The day of the race is a holiday in St. John's (if weather permits boat races) so everyone in town knows about it. (There's a Dingle Regatta in Ireland, there's a famous dance tune named after it but I've not been to Dingle and don't know what their regatta is actually like.) Come to think of it, for all the talk of recognizing the word as a class thing, isn't it much more likely to be an "old coastal area" thing? You might need to be fairly rich to have a sailboat to race, but every place I've been around boat races it's been a huge party environment with very broad appeal and probably 100% local recognition. They're just not called regattas in Michigan... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_St._John%27s_Regatta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_St._John%27s_Regatta

DonHopkins 9y ago

I remember having to ask the teacher to explain a word problem that involved a baseball player hitting "a double" and "a triple", because I had no clue what that meant. That test discriminated against nerds who don't give a shit about baseball.

dredmorbius 9y ago
Sports questions were added to IQ tests to make them harder for women, according (if memory serves) to a BBC documentary on stupidity. (Fairly fascinating, though packed sufficiently with examples of its topic to make it painful to watch.) http://www.earthprotect.com/index.php/media-gallery/mediaitem/251-bbc-documentary-stupidity-full-movie http://www.earthprotect.com/index.php/media-gallery/mediaite...
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  Drat, that video is not available. (At least not in my area.) But I'll dig around for it now that I know the title. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ82lJkR-OQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ82lJkR-OQ >This documentary about stupidity tells us the history of the word "moron" ... That's so relevant now that we all know the Secretary of State called the President of the United States a "Fucking Moron", and nobody challenged or disagreed with him, because they all knew he was right.
  - dredmorbius 9y ago
    Yeah, I'm aware the video itself isn't available. I'd run across it on YouTube a while back, though that version is also down. I've not found a canonical link via the BBC yet though I'd expect there is one.

walshemj 9y ago

Well should not schools be trying to widen all their students reading ability? is this not a given if you want to goto university

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]