The above question allegedly taken from a children’s test in Japan was posted on Chinese social networks recently. It’s a question that not only teaches us the proper way to use a scale but also a little something about the way we educate our youth.

The question reads:

Bonus Question: Choose the correct way to use a scale from the following pictures ア to カ.

The first few comments exhibited the sense of superiority you might expect someone to have when viewing such a question.

You don’t see questions like that in China.

The level of basic education is higher in China than other countries.

We don’t teach such trivial things.

That’s too simple!!

However, after some more thought it seemed there may have been more to this kind of question. Do any of us remember how we learned to use a scale? It seems the human race has left such an important life skill up to the whims of fate.

Some Chinese netizens picked up on this saying, “It’s good that they’re teaching stuff that’s actually useful to children” and “Because we learn this from parents in China there are many mistakes,” to which someone replied, “I don’t think anyone mistakes this.”

It got to the point that some comments were demanding “China needs education reform!” However, not everyone was in favor of such radical changes like one netizen who remarked, “This is a terrible question. It could encourage students to use a scale the wrong way.” That person’s concerns were proven right as another comment shortly after read, “カ looks awesome!”

Altering a nation’s education program is a difficult dilemma and such discussion is necessary to set the right course for our future generations. It’s obviously more difficult than the answer to this question which we all know is ア.

Source: Zhonghua Blog (Japanese)