A child does not fail, but "defers success"

The Guardian ^ | Wednesday July 20, 2005 | David Ward and Matthew Taylor

[Onelifetogive]

Fail is one syllable. You need something catchy, short, and imaginative. Lets work it 'til we get it right.

"Deferred Success" is too long. We should just use the acronym. "DS" pronounced /dis/.

"Your son didn't learn anything this year, ma'am, I'll be DS'ing him."

[Condor51]

"Failure, says Liz Beattie, a retired primary school teacher, is a word that should be deleted from the classroom dictionary, because it can put children off learning."

Me thinks Ms Beattie of Buxton, Derbyshire has been watching way too many Monty Python reruns on the telly and now believes they are real.

IIRC this skit was on right after the Dead Parrot and before the Lumberjack.
/s

[caver]

"Failure, says Liz Beattie, a retired primary school teacher, is a word that should be deleted from the classroom dictionary, because it can put children off learning."

I wonder how many more words Ms. Beattie wants eliminated from the dictionary? Idiot teachers like this should not even be close to kids. She ought to be working at McDonalds learning Spanish.

[Jason_b]

If kids literally sleep in class I strongly suggest getting them evaluated for clinical depression. I've known and been acquainted with other "sleepers" who slept to escape the extreme grief that accompanied the father abandoning the family when he was age 4, the mother when another was age 10. Clinical depression is like being buried alive, it is almost impossible to concentrate on acing the algebra test or anything else in that condition. Sleep does provide relief.

That said, if the child is well mentally, there is no need for the PC deferred success nonsense. Remember the old saying, if at first you don't succeed, try, try, again.

[Reaganesque]

Most people, understandably, view failure as a negative thing. It hurts, its embarassing, but without it, success is meaningless. Failure is merely a part of the process that leads to success and if we try to eliminate it, we greatly reduce their chances for success as well. People are imperfect and will make mistakes from time to time. To pretend that we can avoid this is folly of the highest order. The only true failures in life are those who give up on themselves or those who won't even try and liberals seem to be intent on creating a generation of failures. Sad, but not surprising.

[gridlock]

Modern Hiroshima

Modern Nagasaki

[Tacis]

"Child" is such a negative concept. Implicit is it's use is the clear intent that the party has not yet reached a majority and is, therefore, inferior. Henceforth, the accepted label is "pre-adult."

[Graymatter]

Uh oh. A lot of people fear failure. They don't fear putting off success.
Fear of failure is one of the things that motivates people. The most successful person I ever knew, did it all because she didn't want to end up like her loser parents. The money and recognition didn't matter at all. She sewed her own clothes, bought with coupons and gave secretly to worthy causes. Thank God someone put the fear of failure in her heart!

[libs_kma]

"So, if a person never succeeds at anything worthwhile and dies are they a failure THEN?"

No. Just ask Shirley McClaine, they get another chance.

Or ask Tom Cruise. He'll tell you theres plenty more chances to get rid of those nasty body thetans

[absolootezer0]

Soooooooooo .. she wasn't born a loser .. it was just delayed success??

no, she's just worked hard to become one.

[libs_kma]

I notice you didn't include Modern Chernobyl.

But then I remembered that Chernobyl looked like a nuclear accident before it had a nuclear accident. :)

[absolootezer0]

history books are telling the truth still, they just aren't telling ALL of it. they learn in physics class what happens in nuclear fall-out of a modern high-grade warhead, then learn in history that we dropped a nuke on hiroshima/ nagasaki- and that's how we won the war.
it gets skipped that we spent millions helping japan rebuild. and it definately skips that the nuke we dropped is nothing compared to what we have now. but it makes sure to tell about the death toll and the nuclear shadows.

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>But others feel failure is as important for children as success - deferred or otherwise

As long as the world has standards. It does at some level still matter. You have to learn to get off your @$$ after someone has tackled you for a loss.

[absolootezer0]

"Conference believes it is time to delete the word 'fail' from the educational vocabulary, to be replaced with the concept of 'deferred success' Ms Beattie, i would like to cordially offer you a job working on editting the "newspeak" dictionary. the country of oceana thinks that your current lack of intelligence would make you a prime candidate for the job. your liberal attitude and polically correct thinking have earned you this very desirable job. and don't worry about 'deferring success' in your new job, if you don't succeed immediately, we will be happy to re-educate you free of charge.

[chgomac]

Thank you for the pics.

[chgomac]

You make very good points. Maybe there will be an opportunity to discuss it further with her. We talked about what options Truman had & the cost in lives lost for the Allies if we had to invade Japan.

[OB1kNOb]

When all else fails defers success, declare victory and move on.

[NRA1995]

Not so many years ago, I remember the Brits were substituting "We're freeing up your future" for "You're fired"

[Polyxene]

How do you say "defers success" in Ebonics?

[southernnorthcarolina]

The concept of deferred success as opposed to failure gives me hope. I haven't failed to win the Masters, to found the next MicroSoft, or to be elected Pope. It's just that these goals just haven't been realized yet.