The word "Fail" now being banned in classrooms

[Larry_OHF]

I heard that in England, they are changing the word "failed" to "deferred success".

I think we in the US say "held back" instead of "fail" these days.

This reminds me of that thread about red ink being banned for use on grading tests.

[Sir Goulum]

Whoever's pushing for these need to grow up. Failing's a fact of life, get over it.

[Azred]

Stuff like this really makes me reconsider home-schooling TJ.

This is going to produce a whole generation of spineless wonders. I mean "backbone-deprived persons whose value equals the value of every other person". [img]graemlins/idontagreeatall.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/5bloodymurder.gif[/img]

[Timber Loftis]

If you can't tell students they have failed, they will be ill-prepared for capitalistic life after school. In the real world of business, any error whatsoever is first assigned to someone for blame, before anyone even looks to whether or not the error was harmful or even needs to be addressed. Telling people they suck is a regular part of business, and I feel sorry for the upcoming generation which is just going to get pwned by this practice once they face it.

[Chewbacca]

You would have to look at it through eyes of children I think to particaly understand. My nephew cries if he gets an A minus. It can be a big deal, particulrly in elementry school.

It doesn't matter which label we attach to not getting the desired results in school.

What matters is how a failing person is given a chance to suceed. And whether or not that person is helped to learn to overcome and solve their mistakes.

[ 07-21-2005, 02:00 AM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]

[Jorath Calar]

How many politicallu correct idiots does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

None, because they are forever left in the dark...

[Grojlach]

So before we're all triggerhappy to jump to conclusions (oops - already too late ), do you have a source for all this, Larry? Even though some of you are overreacting regardless.

[Aragorn1]

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: I heard that in England, they are changing the word "failed" to "deferred success".

No, one 'retired' (read mental breakdown! [img]smile.gif[/img] ) teacher suggested it.

[shamrock_uk]

Luckily the education secretary decided to say something sensible for once and gave it "nought out of ten" [img]smile.gif[/img]

[aleph_null1]

Originally posted by Chewbacca: It doesn't matter which label we attach to not getting the desired results in school.

In a dissenting opinion, I'll agree with Chewbacca, though maybe not for the same reasons. My schools were always on the vanguard of political correctness: We never failed classes; our grades were simply "postponed" (literally, a 'P' on the report card) until such time as we passed the class. Just one example of a vibe that was normal in that system.

And it was thoroughly embarrassing for everyone involved. Failure we could handle; we all played sports & games, and there was still that strange pride among the losers, e.g. "Well I failed 4 classes." "Haha, luzer, I failed all 6! 0.0, beat that!"

But being "postponed" had no glamor, consoled nobody, and encouraged no success, except insofar as it was embarrassing to be labelled "postponed". People would get 'D's just to avoid it [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]