Deferred success. argh.
An article on BBC News says that no pupil should fail [news.bbc.co.uk]. That’s what the headline is anyway. If you read it though "teachers" are not actually saying that, they are about to hear it, as a suggestion, at a conference, from one retired teacher.
The idea behind the concept is that, instead of failing, pupils should have a "deferred success". This is possibly some of the most politically correct nonsense that I’ve heard spewed out for a while.
Are we so nannying these days that we cannot tell someone when they haven’t managed to do something properly? How are these folk, who grow up protected from any possibility of failure supposed to cope within their working lives? Or, when they make a mistake a work, will they, instead of being pulled up, be told "that was great bob, but we’ll defer your success on that until next time shall we?".
For god’s sake.

July 19th, 2005 at 9:11 pm
OMG, that is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard…
July 20th, 2005 at 9:52 am
Yes!!!! I’ve never ‘deferred success’ in my life, although I have failed one or two things on previous occasions! Nanny state gone bonkers!
July 21st, 2005 at 11:08 am
Does that mean a “pass” should be reclassified as a “potential failure” ?