Thomas Hurley III correctly answered the Final Jeopardy question about the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln. But Thomas spelled it "emanciptation" and was ruled out by host Alex Trebek.
He bet $3,000 of his $9,600 in winnings and finished well behind a rival who amassed $66,600.
"I was pretty upset that I was cheated out of the final 'Jeopardy!' question," he told The News-Times of Danbury. "It was just a spelling error."
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I have a new respect for Alex Trebek.
ReplyDeleteThis is a tempest in a teapot. I suspect some "journalists" have made this into a far bigger deal than the child and parents expected it to be. After all, there is no possible way for the kid to have won, considering what he bet. People report noticing he was unhappy and angry after the ruling...by the judges, not Trebek...which is sort of expected for a 13-year-old. He finished in second place, which is where he would have been even without the spelling error, and still would have only gotten a small prize. That's the real crime: why do finalists only get something like $2K???
ReplyDeleteThe Myth is correct. He wasn't cheated of anything, other than an inconsequential ruling on the correctness of his answer. Somehow, I think that any kid who gets on Kids Jeopardy will manage to overcome this obstacle.
ReplyDeleteGranted, the journalist who wrote this might be so incompetent at math that he or she might have missed that detail but it's a glaring omission to not point out that the answer did not affect the outcome of the game.
I think the story is neat because it's so indicative of the modern student. It's "not wrong" because it was "just" a spelling error.
ReplyDeleteI guarantee you this kid will be hell on his proffies.
"I was cheated," the kid says. Not, "I'm a dumbass."
Agreed -- these types are already in college. When I was still teaching in a classroom, one of my keeners kept me after class to ask me why she got an A-minus rather than an A on her first essay of the (upper-division comp) class. "You only marked a few errors!" she whined.
DeleteI pointed out that her citations were incorrectly formatted and not well aligned with the in-text citations of the essay. She said, "Oh, I didn't think citations mattered that much."
If you make silly mistakes, then you don't get an A, sweetcakes.
He's ALREADY in my classes thinking that because I'm supposed to have mind-reading abilities ("Well, you knew what I meant to write"), his grade should be based on my giving him the benefit of the doubt every time.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this student is already in our classes.
ReplyDeleteIn keeping with the trend to blame teachers for all of education's ills, I find it insulting how many people are taking up this kid's "cause" on comment boards. Add a national audience and some prize money, this kid was "cheated."
But ... if he had made this mistake during the National History Bee, then the same commenters would be whining that it was proof of the failure of American education.
So long as celebrity is involved, it's every snowflake for hirself.
He certainly wasn't cheated, but I thought it seemed a little churlish not to give him the points. I kinda felt bad for him.
ReplyDeleteUNTIL I read this whiny nonsense. I don't feel bad for him anymore.
To be honest, I think that this is more an indictment of the parents than of the kid, and suggests that, if our students come to us with shitty atti8tudes, it's often the result of the poor example shown by other adults.
ReplyDeleteOf course the kid's going to be upset. He's 12 years old, and was chided by Alex Trebek in front of a national audience for having "misspelled it badly." His parents should have sat him down, commiserated with him, and then told him that the rules are the rules, and he has to live with the decision.
I feel for the kid, and if adding an extra "t" to the word "emancipation" were the worst spelling mistake I saw from my college-aged students, I'd be a very happy camper. I teach history, and we talk about the Emancipation Proclamation in some of my courses, and I'll bet that some of my students could not have answered that question correctly.
It's worth noting, too, that Alex Trebek also screwed up in correcting the kid. Watch the video here, and you'll see that, according to Trebek, the kid's mistake was to "put a 'p' in there." No, Alex, the kid's mistake was to put an extra "t" in there.
Oh no! I'm so sorry, it's "the Moops". The correct answer is "the Moops".
ReplyDeleteThe analogous problem I struggle with is with units and significant figures. The most common complaint is, "but I did the calculation right". My reply is that if you didn't use units, and you didn't use the appropriate precision, the calculation is wrong.
ReplyDeleteI have that same problem with students and I have the same response. They all know that arguing with me on those points will not work, but they try anyway.
DeleteThis happened last night on the Tournament of Champions, too! One of the contestants answered "Waitin for Godot" for Final Jeopardy, and they didn't accept it because she left off the "g."
ReplyDeleteThere's a difference between making a spelling error on a term paper when you have a word processor and time to edit, and getting one letter wrong on an answer when you have only a few seconds to answer and thousands of dollars are at stake.
ReplyDeletethousands of dollars are at stake...
Delete...that you aren't entitled to, that you will only get if you operate under the rules that were explained to you in advance, among which are that your answer must be spelled right.