That's an apt comparison: if no (or painfully few) students were able to give at least a reasonable answer, the problem lays in the teaching curriculum or metho

That's an apt comparison: if no (or painfully few) students were able to give at least a reasonable answer, the problem lays in the teaching curriculum or methodology. (This may not be the course itself, it may be a broader question about hand-holding an academia or similar, but the question remains.) I remember a particular instance in Geometry in high school. Everyone did poorly, so the teacher allowed us to work together to answer the questions again. My group was stuck on a particular question, so I asked the teacher to clarify. She refused, saying we were taught it. I retorted that since everyone was struggling, clearly the problem was on the other side of the desk. (It went over about as well as you might expect.)