Exams are now virtual signalling?

[WarOfTheWolds]

Details changed to protect identity, but in summary:

DS had an exam today, He's at college. The exam mark will go towards his final grade. He was tasked with answering questions on several case studies. One of the subjects of a case study was a person called Sam. Sam had they/them pronouns and Sam's sex was unclear.
DS has ASC and dyslexia. He's bright, but can tend towards rigid thinking. He said that he just kept on getting confused by the case study, having to re-read it several times to understand it because of the plural pronouns (other people were also involved in the case study, so a lot of pronouns flying about). DS also ended up editing his answers several times to try and make sure he got the pronouns right and consistent.
It seems that adding these pronouns to an exam question, when it was unnecessary to the case study
(a) was virtual signalling of woke-ness by the examiner
(b) likely to confuse students with issues like ASC and dyslexia and
(c) therefore be discriminatory towards some students - both in terms of understanding, and the extra time taken to check and re-write answers.
DS gets extra time in his exams, and usually doesn't need it all. Today he only just finished in time.

So, AIBU - inclusive pronouns are great and including them in exams is important because it raises visibility
or
YANBU - these pronouns are confusing and including them in exams is unnecessary and unhelpful for students with learning difficulties

(With thanks to the posters on my first thread attempt who pointed out my logic fail on the poll 😂🙏 )

And gender normative language excludes others. Understanding that other people may view gender differently than how you view gender could very well be pertinent to the understanding of the course content. Particularly in the type of discipline that ops son was studying.

YABU.

Many years ago (over 40!) I made a stupid mistake on a maths exam. The question was illustrated with one black man and one white man, and I assumed “Jefferson” was the black man. Consequently I totally misunderstood the question and got the answer wrong. I needed education (and got it).

Change has to happen, and this is just one of the ways. Dismissing such a change as “woke” says more about your fixed views than it does about prevailing societal norms.

FYI I am NT and struggle with the whole pronoun thing, so I can well imagine how your son might too. But that’s on me, and is also on your son. I’m glad he gets extra time in exams.

Because people with specific learning difficulties matter. And ensuring exam content is accessible to all is actually pretty bloody important.
Of course they are and as a retired part of an autism diagnostic team, I also agree that we are all different. However, such case studies will have been taught and the language used will have been used and discussed in lessons before the exam. If this is not the case then op may just be able to cobble together a case for complaint.

ASD often overlaps with dyslexia. ASD can often trigger an intrusive need for accuracy and when combined with communication and literacy difficulties, unnecessary faffing with gramatically incorrect pronouns is an unnecessary burden to add to an exam and detracts from the purpose of assessing knowledge. The distraction isn't exclusive (or universal) to ASD or dyslexia and others may struggle too, but there will be a disproportionate disruption to those already facing specific learning difficulties.

Which is why they typically get 25% more time to complete the exam.

I sat an exam for work in November and the question went out of its way to say what the pronoun was. Made zero sense to do so as it wasn't relevant and wasn't reflected in the answer.

It is normal in exams to be working right up to the wire, people who need extra time to process and interpret information are no different. Extra time is about levelling the playing field so that exams provide the same 'test' for all those sitting it. YABU on that basis.

People (and exams!) need to stop worrying about the social construct of gender and just concentrate on what sex they are, then there won't be all this confusing and unnecessary 'them' and 'they' when talking about one person. Non-binary is meaningless because nobody feels completely female or completely male - because what does that even mean? Who knows what 'completely female' feels like?

Not an essential skill you need to pass maths GCSE though

Well illustrated!

How lovely for you all. I’m sure with such a range of autism in the family you are quite aware that not everyone presents the same way …….

Thanks for all these interesting contributions.

Can I just point out, my DS raised this with me as an issue. I asked him how today had gone, and it was the first thing he came out with.

I am not pursuing an agenda, I am using this thread to highlight a potential issue for kids that other people may not be aware of.

And in case anyone wonders, I'm not right wing, religious or bigoted 😂

Should be though because how kids do on GCSEs influences which A levels they choose which are usually chosen based on what career they wish to pursue. If you’re not solving word problems in maths at GCSE level, you’re in for a big shock.

Lovely stuff. Really getting to the heart of the issue there.
You are aware disability is a protected characteristic?

It crossed my mind, but no. Definitely not. The sex of the person was not relevant. The subject isn't sociology btw, it was just a ballpark topic area I gave for context.

Oh, behave!!

Thank you both, You get the point I was (inelegantly) trying to make

However, such case studies will have been taught and the language used will have been used and discussed in lessons before the exam. If this is not the case then op may just be able to cobble together a case for complaint.

That's a really big assumption there. Do you know OP and the college her dc goes to and all his tutors? And which exam it was? And what the question was?

No. Didn't think so.

I agree with inclusion. Wholeheartedly. I agree with having names in exams being as multicultural as possible. I agree that kids and young people must see people like them represented. But I do not agree that has to come at the expense of another group of young people, and to be honest it's pretty easy to make sure that those that have 'they' pronouns see themselves in exam paper questions and that ND people have an accessible paper.

DS had never come across a case study before where the sex was not clear.
It had not been taught; it was not relevant.

It just acted like a curve ball, hampering his performance

It has raised a lot that the newer GCSE maths papers require far higher english comprehension skills than the ones you or I may have sat. This may disadvantage kids with special educational needs, They can still succeed though! It would be good if unnecessary barriers were taken down.

Perhaps it hadn't been taught specifically in that subject this year but it's normal language these days. It's on every TV show, podcast, news programme. There's no excuse for not understanding the use of they/them. My 11 yo gets it.

People with your eloquence and clarity should be setting the exam papers @titchy!

How do you know though? Have you seen the marking scheme? It could be relevant outside sociology.

It's a pity that a new pronoun can't be invented to describe a gender neutral person. As a grammar pedant, to me "they" is plural to describe more than one person.

As an aside how do they deal with this in countries that use masculine and feminine articles? In France for example? Did you know that Franch for vagina is masculine?

It’s not as if using ‘they’ or ‘them’ to apply to an individual person is a new concept, it’s always been a feature of the English language.

People going exclusively by genderless pronouns seems to be a recent phenomenon.

Perhaps it was a poorly-phrased question in other respects but it’s hard to see the issue otherwise.