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flabbergasted One of the British teaching unions - didn't register which one; I was too busy picking my jaw up off the desk - has called for the word 'failure' to be removed from the collective educational vocabulary and replaced with the phrase, 'deferred success'. W. T. F. ?
I would've thought coping with failure would be an important life lesson. We can't all have wild success in every subject and on every occasion.
Sometimes, pratice makes perfect and perseverence will eventually be crowned with success; sometimes not. We have to learn to differentiate here - to know when to keep trying, and when to give up and find something to do that's more suited to one's aptitude and ability.
If you can't do integral calculus, then you're highly unlikely to make it as a theoretical astrophysicist and the sooner you learn this, the less painful it's going to be later on. To teach that failure is 'deferred success' is just stringing children along and leading them to think that success is some kind of divine right.
If children are conned into putting effort into something that will never garner the rewards which effort should bring, they will be well pissed off, and rightly so.
Please - teach children to live in the real world!
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July 19 2005, 16:19:02 UTC 6 years ago
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July 19 2005, 17:22:37 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 17:37:12 UTC 6 years ago
Well, at least it'll keep you out of mischief, 'cos those plot bunnies, they breed like - well, rabbits on viagra comes to mind. {g}
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July 19 2005, 17:56:54 UTC 6 years ago
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July 19 2005, 17:23:05 UTC 6 years ago
Name and Shame...
It was the Professional Association of Teachers.July 20 2005, 14:29:05 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Name and Shame...
Why am I not surprised?July 19 2005, 19:43:02 UTC 6 years ago
Addenda
1. I'm wondering if telling children they've achieved 'deferred success' isn't a means of getting teachers off the hook when they've achieved 'deferred success' in teaching said children. When I was learning to teach, the thought was that if a child didn't learn, it was largely your fault.2. It argues some deficiency in the education system if we try to force children to learn subjects in which they have little ability and no interest. For instance, isn't making a child learn French when he hasn't properly mastered his native language, setting him up to
failachieve long deferred success?--
July 20 2005, 01:31:44 UTC 6 years ago
I have friends in the French Immersion program who cannot spell in English, so it's beyond me... Though friends of the family were in Immersion when they switched back to the regular curriculum and their marks dropped from 90% to 60% on average, so arguably the scale is tipped a little for cheating the deffered success...
July 20 2005, 10:04:43 UTC 6 years ago
This is what I mean by learning to differentiate between knowing when to keep trying, and when to give up and find something to do that's more suited to one's aptitude and ability.
You know you can do better and so it's in your interest to put in a little more effort. You know you'll reap the benefits of it.
If you were regularly scoring 30% in a particular subject, it wouldn't matter how much effort you put in, it really wouldn't be worth it, so you might as well do something more within your capabilities.
I've been saying for years now, that by the age of fourteen (the age my parents left school) folks pretty well know everything on the academic side that they're actually likely to need. The majority of people have neither the interest nor the aptitude to take academic subjects to a higher level that they'll never use.
As a result, they get bored and, not surprisingly, some become disruptive. This then impedes those who are interested in learning more. The answer would seem to be to teach more practical things that will be useful in later life.
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July 20 2005, 16:20:33 UTC 6 years ago
July 20 2005, 21:20:07 UTC 6 years ago
Rod's in computing and at one time did a spell as a tutor in computer science. The beloved son read computer science at Uni. Rod laments that universities (in computing anyway) are completely out of touch with the commercial world. 8-(
I suspect that theatre studies courses are probably more likely to have their finger on the pulse. I'm sure you'll do brilliantly anyway. 8-)
Strangely, I found Latin both useful and interesting, and still do. 8-)
P.S. What's the word on your icon? European monitors seem to have a darker setting than North American ones and it's too dark to read. 8-(
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July 20 2005, 22:08:37 UTC 6 years ago
Well, the computer guy I got in the commercial world yesterday seemed to be out of touch with a lot of things... *glowers*
I hope. Theatre's the fastest shrinking job market in the history of ever. I'm going to have fun in my intro to acting class though, lol.
I loved Latin and really lamented that my after school class ended. They don't offer Latin at my campus, only the university's larger campus.
P.S. It says 'pain' and it's so ridiculously cheesy that I want to kick it, but my program buggered up and if I wanted the icon at all, they wouldn't let me edit the text I'd put on it about forty alterations ago, so I got sick of it and just let it go. Now that I have my laptop/DVD capture technology back, I'm going to capture some choice moments from a TV show no one likes and make a new icon, heh. And it's probably just that you're more comfortable with your monitor at a less glaring brightness. I have mine as bright as it'll go and it's a WXGA, which is the newest technology of bright laptop screens... ... and I'm going to stop now because that's frighteningly boring.
July 20 2005, 03:08:27 UTC 6 years ago
Opinionated? Me?
It's PC-ism run amok.The bottom line is that some children aren't very bright and/or motivated. Coddling them will only ensure that they'll grow up to be adults who are not very bright/motivated.
I understand that in some situations, children--and their teachers--are having to spend all their time (and the rest of the class's time) dealing with rudimentaries because said children are being raised by people with all the parenting skills of rutabagas. The same concept applies--ignoring the problem won't fix it.
And in the interest of equality--shouldn't success be labeled as "failure deferred"?
July 20 2005, 03:14:16 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Opinionated? Me?
Huh. Wouldn't "Failure Deferred" be a great fic title? Assuming, of course, that I could come up with an actual fic?Right. Going away now ;-)
July 20 2005, 10:14:23 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Opinionated? Me?
I'm sure you'll think of something. 'Failure Deferred' kind of suggests a Quinn fic...{g, d & r}
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July 20 2005, 14:27:38 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Opinionated? Me?
Only if you're obsessed...July 20 2005, 21:22:54 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Opinionated? Me?
More of an aversion than an obsession. {g}Pax, Kelly. 8-)
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July 20 2005, 22:03:48 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Opinionated? Me?
::eye twitches::I'm being good. :-)
July 22 2005, 11:32:17 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Opinionated? Me?
Oh, you are, Sweetie - very, very good.--
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July 21 2005, 01:55:28 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Opinionated? Me?
I was thinking it would be perfect for a Jack/Sam fic... which I definitely will *not* be writing :-0July 20 2005, 10:12:34 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Opinionated? Me?
LOL! 'Failure deferred'. I like that. It's probably more accurate too, sadly.Literacy and numeracy should be the main aims of primary education. If you can read with reasonable fluency and understanding, you can pretty well educate yourself. I learnt far more out of school than I did in it.
Finland boast 100% literacy, so it is possible. Mind their population is only about 4 million I think, which probably helps in that respect. {g}
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July 20 2005, 22:02:26 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Opinionated? Me?
Have been discussing deferred success all evening. Colin says as his dad has congestive heart failure, does this mean...? Seriously, we were fairly horrified by the idea - could only see it applying to things like driving tests when you fail first time out of nerves!