When Pineapple Races Hare, Students Lose, Critics of Standardized Tests Say
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
A story by the children’s book author Daniel Pinkwater, above, was adapted for an English test in a way that baffled students and caused officials to say that the questions wouldn’t be counted.
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: April 20, 2012
A reading passage included this week in one of New York’s standardized English tests has become the talk of the eighth grade, with students walking around saying, “Pineapples don’t have sleeves,” as if it were the code for admission to a secret society.
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The passage is a parody of the tortoise and the hare story, the Aesop’s fable that almost every child learns in elementary school. Only instead of a tortoise, the hare races a talking pineapple, and the moral of the story — more on that later — is the part about the sleeves.
While taking the test, baffled children raised their hands to say things like, “This story doesn’t make sense.”