My youngest daughter, in 10th grade, complained about a bizarre technique her teacher is using. Every 10th grader in the school takes HUM (for humanities), a combined English/History course. The history teacher gives her a vocab quiz before starting the section in earnest. "It's not fair we have to know what these words mean before we even read the chapter!" They're studying classical China and India right now, so the morning before they started the section, they were quizzed over a list of terms including, among others, "Qin Dynasty", "Silk Road", "Daoism."
Was hard not to chuckle at that - I might have made the same complaint at that age, had our teacher used a similar pedagogical approach. "Maybe she wants to make sure you understand what she's saying in class, and what you're about to read in the book. It could save you time in the long wrong." (Scowl mixed with "you have *GOT* to be kidding me" look.)
