Say What???
Today a teacher’s organization in the UK said that the word “fail” should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase “deferred success” to avoid demoralizing pupils. Their theory is that by telling a student they have failed, the student may be forever scarred and “put off” from learning. Apparently they have never heard of Thomas Edison, who holds more US patents (and that by a substantial margin) than any other person. He was thrown out of school because he “deferred success” for too long.
This touchy-feely Montessori garbage has gone too far. Students are in school to learn. If they do not learn, it is not a “deferred success.” Teachers do not exist to “facilitate the discovery of knowledge.” They are there to teach. As the wise Mr. Miyagi said, “teacher say, student do.” That is the nature of school. Color-coding a student’s failure with creative language does them a disservice. They will not be adequately prepared for a world that does not dance around the subject.
Of course, they can always get jobs in America, because here you do not get “fired” at work. Instead you get “selectively transitioned” or some such nonsense. Maybe that is where the teachers in England are getting this. We have invented phrases whose sole purpose is to hide the true facts of a situation, perhaps to allay some of the guilt we are told that we should feel for other people’s problems.
Case in point, here in California, we do not have “illegal aliens.” Instead, we have “undocumented immigrants.” They used to be called “undocumented workers” but the media decided that term was still too negative. “Undocumented immigrant” is supposed to make me feel like it is my fault (or more generally the government’s fault) that they do not have the proper paperwork. The whole messy business of how they got here really isn’t important.
People cannot solve their problems until they acknowledge that they do in fact have a problem. Using colorful language does not encourage people to engage in critical self-analysis and then seek ways to correct their problems. Instead, it teaches them at best that they do not have a problem, and at worst that someone else is responsible for their life. This is not a way to ensure the betterment of society. People need to be responsible for their own lives and accountable for their own actions. Otherwise, the entire human history on Earth will be a “deferred success.”
This touchy-feely Montessori garbage has gone too far. Students are in school to learn. If they do not learn, it is not a “deferred success.” Teachers do not exist to “facilitate the discovery of knowledge.” They are there to teach. As the wise Mr. Miyagi said, “teacher say, student do.” That is the nature of school. Color-coding a student’s failure with creative language does them a disservice. They will not be adequately prepared for a world that does not dance around the subject.
Of course, they can always get jobs in America, because here you do not get “fired” at work. Instead you get “selectively transitioned” or some such nonsense. Maybe that is where the teachers in England are getting this. We have invented phrases whose sole purpose is to hide the true facts of a situation, perhaps to allay some of the guilt we are told that we should feel for other people’s problems.
Case in point, here in California, we do not have “illegal aliens.” Instead, we have “undocumented immigrants.” They used to be called “undocumented workers” but the media decided that term was still too negative. “Undocumented immigrant” is supposed to make me feel like it is my fault (or more generally the government’s fault) that they do not have the proper paperwork. The whole messy business of how they got here really isn’t important.
People cannot solve their problems until they acknowledge that they do in fact have a problem. Using colorful language does not encourage people to engage in critical self-analysis and then seek ways to correct their problems. Instead, it teaches them at best that they do not have a problem, and at worst that someone else is responsible for their life. This is not a way to ensure the betterment of society. People need to be responsible for their own lives and accountable for their own actions. Otherwise, the entire human history on Earth will be a “deferred success.”
posted by exsubdriver at 11:42 AM
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