London Teachers Propose Banning The Word "Fail" Use "Deferred Success"

[matcom]

<snip>

LONDON (Reuters) - The word "fail" should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase "deferred success" to avoid demoralizing pupils, a group of teachers has proposed.

Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) argue that telling pupils they have failed can put them off learning for life.

A spokesman for the group said it wanted to avoid labeling children. "We recognize that children do not necessarily achieve success first time," he said.

"But I recognize that we can't just strike a word from the dictionary," he said.

The PAT said it would debate the proposal at a conference next week.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050720/od_nm/britain_failure_dc;_ylt=AmanTAc_7aEI2ns65VhAF9vtiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[Redstone]

1. That's a riot. Almost as good as

"I wasn't retreating, I was advancing to the rear."

Redstone

[Kelvin Mace]

2. This is the kind of idiocy

that makes us the laughing stock of conservative circles.

[KitchenWitch]

3. "everyone's a winner"

[Doctor_J]

4. Sounds like Smirk's war

he believes history will be kind to him in 10 years. Come to think of it, his disatrous attempts at high school, college, grad school, business, governing Texas, and parenting weren't failures - they were just deferred successes.

[tuvor]

5. Reminds me of a euphemism for "mentally challenged"

which is already a euphemism for "mentally retarded".

Anyone ever hear of "developmentally delayed" in the mid-80s? (Were they implying that one day they'd be as bright as the average????)

:eyes:

I hope no one uses this term anymore.