Teaching group to consider banning word "fail"; replace with "deferred success"

[Richard]

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I am stunned at this stupidity.  Of course, conservatives are to blame.  Err.  Hold on.  Teachers are liberals.  Our education systems are failing.  Now add 2 and 2.

[Alcon]

OK.

[Jake]

That's fairly stupid.

[Richard]

Definitely up there with not using red ink because it is traumatic to the children.

[Speed of Sound]

i see what theyre trying to do, i just dont find it necessary or practical.

[Alcon]

Definitely up there with not using red ink because it is traumatic to the children.

My dad had a student who had an anxiety disordered triggered by this because she was abused when she was younger.  There are cases where this is valid, but generally, it is not.

This is hardly a matter of liberal or conservative, but really just a matter of stupid.

[7,052,770]

I suppose it might save 1 or 2 kids to switch, but it'd send the wrong message to a bunch of other kids that you should sugarcoat things and be uberpolitically correct.

[Nation]

Dammit Johnny, you've deferred success in history and math SIX TIMES. Stop deferring! You're almost there!

[??????????]

"Deferred success" sounds like a term Clinton would use.

[bullmoose88]

Ya know geez...

you think they woulda started with saying kids with "D's" were passing with some deficencies.

[Gustaf]

The actual term you use does not matter much. In Sweden we pretty much have that kind of terminilogy ("not passed" is the lowest grade). But to get it is just as traumatic, since everyone knows what it means.

[Platypus]

here, it is "Unsatisfactory".

[Bono]

The actual term you use does not matter much. In Sweden we pretty much have that kind of terminilogy ("not passed" is the lowest grade). But to get it is just as traumatic, since everyone knows what it means.

The point is we shouldn't be using newspeak for things like this.
Or anythings at all.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The High School I attended actually had two different failing grades: E and F.  However the E wasn't assigned just as a feel good.  Students who made E's were allowed to make up the course in summer achool.  An F meant that you needed to take it over from scratch if you wanted credit for the course.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Can't imagine tuther Teaching unions (is PAT a union? I think so. Don't know much about them to be honest) going along with this... I sometimes get the impression that certain NUT members wouldn't be opposed to bringing capital punishment for chewing gum

[MaC]

Can't use red ink, lavender is better.  Can't have dodge ball, dodge ball implies competition, and it might scare our special children.  Can't give the kid an F, an E might not hurt them as much.  Now let's take out our circle of paper class.. Gimme a break.  It might be liberals, it might not, be, but it is all around dumb.  It's a load of BS to think it might hurt the kids self esteem.  I saw the Daily Show episode with a women who basically said this is a load of bull.  Anyone else see it?

[Gabu]

I see that these teachers have decided to defer their success in identifying what they should be spending their time on.

[Gabu]

Now have they ever thought about the word success' self-esteem? I mean now it's so confident but wait until it reminds people of failure because everything you fail at is deferred success. This word's view of itself is going to go way down

Seriously though, its the same thing. Deferred Success=failure... It is just foolish to change this.

Yes, I would agree.  Honestly, while we obviously shouldn't completely ignore students struggling, I can't help but feel like we're ignoring the students who do well in lieu of giving special treatment for those who don't and that our priorities are slightly lopsided, to say the least.

[Citizen James]

Perhaps if they gave out "gentleman's C's" like Yale does to all those unfortunate but not in the least bit poor (financially anyway) fellows who simply don't have time to study amidst their busy social schedules...

Nothing new here.

[Platypus]

Dear valued teacher,

We at Melbourne High School (Learning experts division) regret to inform you that our request for clear language has not been met. Our aims for the immediate interactions between ourselves and you are as follows:

1. Establish a firm bond of trust with mutual understanding of eachother's concerns.
2. Meet in an atmosphere that is acceptable to both parties, to discuss the problem.
3. Politely tell you that this priveledge will cost you $350, a small fee for a satisactory outcome in this particular case.
4. Maintain our original insistance and pocket 7 monkeys.

Our representative council will be available for you to contact between the hours of 1pm and 2pm on the third tuesday of every month if you have any enquiries; or call our tollfree number on (03) 1300 666 629.

We hope that our partneship will continue to be mutually acceptable and progressive for all concerned.

Melbourne High School Learning Experts.

[nini2287]

The High School I attended actually had two different failing grades: E and F.  However the E wasn't assigned just as a feel good.  Students who made E's were allowed to make up the course in summer achool.  An F meant that you needed to take it over from scratch if you wanted credit for the course.

My school had something similar.  An F meant a loss of credit (-1 on the GPA) and it may not be made up in summer school.  It indicated a lack of effort.

[KillerPollo]

The High School I attended actually had two different failing grades: E and F.  However the E wasn't assigned just as a feel good.  Students who made E's were allowed to make up the course in summer achool.  An F meant that you needed to take it over from scratch if you wanted credit for the course.

My school had something similar.  An F meant a loss of credit (-1 on the GPA) and it may not be made up in summer school.  It indicated a lack of effort.

That's inhumane.

[John Dibble]

The High School I attended actually had two different failing grades: E and F.  However the E wasn't assigned just as a feel good.  Students who made E's were allowed to make up the course in summer achool.  An F meant that you needed to take it over from scratch if you wanted credit for the course.

My school had something similar.  An F meant a loss of credit (-1 on the GPA) and it may not be made up in summer school.  It indicated a lack of effort.

That's inhumane.

It's inhumane to punish people for not doing their jobs? (in the case of students, their school work)

That actually sounds like a good system to me - it differentiates the people who honestly are just having a hard time with the material from the people who just plain don't give a crap.

[Gabu]

The High School I attended actually had two different failing grades: E and F.  However the E wasn't assigned just as a feel good.  Students who made E's were allowed to make up the course in summer achool.  An F meant that you needed to take it over from scratch if you wanted credit for the course.

My school had something similar.  An F meant a loss of credit (-1 on the GPA) and it may not be made up in summer school.  It indicated a lack of effort.

Yes, my university has something like that as well.  If you get between 40% and 49% in a course, or if your professor allows it due to exceptional circumstances, you get an E, which is still a fail, but you can get credit for the course by simply writing the final exam again (an different one than what you previously wrote, obviously) and passing with a high enough score that it bumps your mark above 50%.  If you get below 40% and your professor knows very well that it's just because you have no clue what you're doing, then you get an F and have to take the entire course over again.

[Gustaf]

The actual term you use does not matter much. In Sweden we pretty much have that kind of terminilogy ("not passed" is the lowest grade). But to get it is just as traumatic, since everyone knows what it means.

The point is we shouldn't be using newspeak for things like this.
Or anythings at all.

I'm not supporting it. Rather saying that you should stick with the terminilogy you have and not mess around with it.