I'm a grad student...apparently

So, this week, I began working on an MA in TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) online, through the New School, a university in NYC.

And today, I'm reading an assigned reading concerned with learner assessment (the title of the chapter is called "Changing Paradigms for Assessment" by one Anne Katz, who ever she may be. And I come across a block quote talking about the history of testing which reads as follows (emphasis mine):

Jephthat (Judges 12:5) ordered that all those who approached the Jordan fords unable to pronounce the word "shibboleth" should be killed. By doing so, he distinguished between his own men and those of the enemy, who could not say the sound "sh." Thus, those who came with the password pronounced as "sibboleth" failed a very effective, early, criterion-referenced achievement test and recieved immediate feedback. (From someone named Betrand's work in 1981, on page 18)

Now, this is either a candidate for comedic understatement of the year or it's an example of what so many people hate about academic writing. To call being killed for failing to pass a test - yeah, I can't argue the fact that it is immediate feedback. But that's such a sterilized way to put it.