http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/ britain_failure_dc;_ylt=Ap8_LZ35.RweHOb503IvIqHtiBIF;_ylu=X3 oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
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.
ID:186331
Jul 20 2005, 4:21 pm
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I don't know, seems a good idea. Me and a group of my friends are highly competitive. Whilst I still had the morale to bother with school, we used to completely ruin a kid in the group's day if he got less than an A*.
"Faaailllluuuureee" "You're going to fail" We even used to call the teachers failures. And now you see why I'm so anti-acheivement and stuff. =/ |
Strawgate wrote:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/ britain_failure_dc;_ylt=Ap8_LZ35.RweHOb503IvIqHtiBIF;_ylu=X3 oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl Gads. Why exactly shouldn't failure be a disappointment? The fact that it's a bad thing encourages people to overcome it. The school should concern itself with getting students revved up to do better, not keeping them from feeling bad about performing badly. And frankly, anyone who can't take failure as a strong motivation to succeed the next time, has no business receiving an education at all. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200; you sir will flip burgers. A single failure is not the end of the world, and anyone who feels otherwise has problems that political correctness can never fix. Actually, political correctness has only ever created problems; it's never solved or even mitigated a single one. The next time somebody suggests to you that we should all use some stupid euphemism to protect people's feelings (people who know what it means and won't feel better about it anyway), punch them square in the mouth and tell them that rank stupidity is a much worse problem than the specter of potentially offending somebody somewhere will ever be. They won't understand any of that, so it's best to punch them again after a few seconds, for effect. (And although I say that rather tongue-in-cheek, it's an amusing comparison to think that while political correctness never solved a problem, violence has solved lots. It's also created a lot more, too, but at least it's not wholly worthless.) Lummox JR |
In response to Lummox JR
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Lummox JR wrote:
Gads. Why exactly shouldn't failure be a disappointment? Yeah, I mean, psychological bullying is fine. Teaches kids to get stronger, right? Making pointless fun out of people. Yeah. Actually, political correctness has only ever created problems; it's never solved or even mitigated a single one. Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, look at all these women and black people in the workplace! Terrible. Just a problem and another. |
In response to Elation
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Elation wrote:
I mean, look at all these women and black people in the workplace! Terrible. Just a problem and another. Exactly. ~Kujila |
In response to Kujila
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Kujila wrote:
Exactly. I prove your point, you prove my point. It's a win-win situation! ;) |
In response to Elation
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Elation wrote:
Lummox JR wrote: You are completely blowing this out of porportion, and so is everyone else. A word is a word, is a word, if someone is pyschological hurt by a word, I hope that word kills them. And I know what you mean, black people, everywhere! We have to get rid of them! <font size = -1> Uh, just kidding.</Font> |
In response to Shades
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You are completely blowing this out of porportion, and so is everyone else. A word is a word, is a word, if someone is pyschological hurt by a word, I hope that word kills them. Am not. Sure, one word might not hurt someone much. But being repeatedly shouted and and demeaned by the world "Failure" is psychological bullying. It's verbal abuse! I'm all for it. I know that it made me feel terrible when my friends would call me a failure. A real rejection! |
In response to Elation
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Elation wrote:
You are completely blowing this out of porportion, and so is everyone else. A word is a word, is a word, if someone is pyschological hurt by a word, I hope that word kills them. Well, then your a big wuss... And a failure. Everyone is way too soft in this day and age, I suggest daily beatings with a garden hose, to toughen up everyone. Then they will know what real pain is. |
In response to Shades
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Shades wrote:
Well, then your a big wuss... And a failure. Screw you. ='( Everyone is way too soft in this day and age, I suggest daily beatings with a garden hose, to toughen up everyone. Then they will know what real pain is. Then you're a sadist, and a moron. Suffering doesn't build character. That's just what people who like to hurt other people say to somehow justify their idiotic and irresponsible actions. Suffering hurts people in the mind! It does stuff like make them sarcastic, make them try and find an escape from the bad things that happen to them. Shut up! =( |
In response to Elation
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Elation wrote:
Shades wrote: Oh, my mind, you totally hurt me in my mind, I am going to go cut my wrists now! Serioulys now though, I am sarcastic, are you saying I am a bad person. I am simply saying, people as a whole are just too damn soft. Why should you care, if someone disapproves of what you do, why should you care if someone thinks your a failure. And if your trying to say, I am some kind of physco who hurts people constatnly, I am not, but I also stand up for myself. if my friends were calling me a failure, Id pop them in the eye and then be on my way. |
In response to Elation
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Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, look at all these women and black people in the workplace! Terrible. Just a problem and another. I am guessing you are being sarcastic there. Well, there is more truth in that than you would think. Very often black women get a "free pass" to work. Without having to worry about being fired. This is what we call "Playing the race card". I am not saying all people use this, but I have known plenty. I don't like the idea of hiring someone based on skin color anymore than people being fired based on thier skin color. |
In response to Scoobert
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Scoobert wrote:
I am guessing you are being sarcastic there. You'd guess right. I don't like the idea of hiring someone based on skin color anymore than people being fired based on thier skin color. Yar. Equality be a good thing. |
In response to Shades
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Shades wrote:
Why should you care, if someone disapproves of what you do, why should you care if someone thinks your a failure. [demonstration of point] Hey Shades: You're a [that language is against the community standards]. Don't take it personally though, because you shouldn't care what I think. And for the reason that you should ignore me, I should continue to insult you freely, right? [/demonstration] |
In response to Elation
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Suffering does build character. . . It does. But people tend to think some things are suffering, when they aren't. Suffering is not being called a nerd, or being bullied.
Suffering is living in a trailer with a crack head as a roll model, constant fighting between parents, having a brother who is a jerk and wants nothing more than to make everyone angry, and not having enough money for dinner the next night. And really, I didn't suffer that much back then. Life sucks, I learned that early. That really isn't suffering. I would say suffering is watching most of your friends and family dieing from a plague that nobody can cure or even figure out how it is being pass. And having most crops dieing at the same time, so even if you survive said plague, you still die from starvation. Fortunately, nobody in our lifetime has had to live though that, except for some in 3rd world countrys. I was bullied though much of my young life, and I don't feel bad about it. I am not trying to say I had a worse life than anyone here, but I deffently have had the best. But I feel I a better person because of it. I now know that drugs can be very very bad, and I don't do them. I know that being a jerk can be very counterproductive, so I try my best to not be a jerk. I know that alcohol does almost no good, and normally does more damage than good. I know that this world revolves around money, and if I don't start early, I will be 35 and living in a trailer. Suck it up for once. |
In response to Scoobert
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Dude exactly, peopel make such big deals out of nothing, and then I turn on the TV and see hundreds of people, [mostly kids] starving to death in afrcia. Where their arms and legs are as thick as a ruler.
And here we are worried about a little, "verbal abuse" if it can even be considered that. But hey, who cares about that? Lets waste our time, worrying about the effect of a word on students. The world becomes a sadder place every single day. |
In response to Elation
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Your peers calling you a failure is not the same thing as a teacher marking an effort of yours (paper, test, etc.) a failure. If you get taunted for failing marks, you'll get taunted for deferred success. :P And getting a failure shouldn't make you feel worthless. Feeling worthless about getting a failure probably should, though... because anything you attempt can fail. The only way to avoid failure is to not attempt anything, and that's not a good lesson.
Some schools in the states are trying to do something similar by changing red ink for error corrections to purple... because red is associated with errors and purple is "neutral". Do you see the problem here? Red is associated with errors 'cause THAT'S WHAT TEACHERS USE TO MARK ERRORS. If they start using purple, it might have some minor effect on the more suggestible children who were used to red... but the first generation of students to come up from Kindergarten under the purple pen system all the way... red won't mean anything to them, and purple will be no different than red was to the previous groups. The same thing with this "deferred success" nonsense. If you can't handle being hounded for being a failure, why would you be able to handle being hounded as being deferred? All it takes is somebody to realize that "deferred" is a synonym for both "held back" (which is ANOTHER euphemism that schools used to repalce "failed", which ended up being just as negative) and also "retarded" (yet ANOTHER once-harmless-euphemism which is now on the Top Ten No-No List of Insensitive Words!)... Changing which word means "the bad thing" won't make insensitive kids stop bullying or make over sensitive students stop caring. At best, it just "defers" it until the new word catches on completely. |
I don't know, to me getting some sugar coated 'you failed, but we still love you' response would be worse than a failure. It's treating you like you're not just stupid, but pathetic as well.
What's next, removing failure completely? You can get an A, B or C mark, but you'll pass regaurdless. That way no one will feel bad, at least until that bridge they're building falls down because they passed high school maths without learning anything. |
In response to Elation
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Elation wrote:
Am not. Sure, one word might not hurt someone much. But being repeatedly shouted and and demeaned by the world "Failure" is psychological bullying. It's verbal abuse! So perhaps they should stop the bullying? This doesn't really have anything to do with bullying. A softer word isn't going to make you feel any better when you're friends laugh at you. |
~Kujila