[Antioch]

Where I live, the real problem is kids in the public school system know teacher's can't fail them. There isn't even such a thing anymore as a "F" or and "fail." It has been replaced by the weasel-phrase "needs improvement" which won't send those poor innocent children into a shame spiral.

When I went to public school the standardized test wasn't an enormous layer of bureaucracy for testing schools, but rather your grade in the class. if you got less than 50% overall, you had to repeat the grade. Perhaps 1-2 in 30 children didn't make the cut. ALL these children pulled up their socks in subsequent years, such was the stigma for the child and the parents. There were consequences, expected standards and truth. No one seems to ask why these testing schemes are SUDDENLY indispensable. The old-fashioned methods of primary school education were perfectly capable of producing literate and disciplined kids.

[Pacothecat]

CAN I HAVE AN AMEN!!!!

[dalereed]

Refusing to answer was the correct one, anyone that wrote some kind of fantasy should have been failed!

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I don't know why the shame should only be dealt by the school. In my household, an NP isn't acceptable, and we crack open the books and STUDY. I don't wait for the teacher to start remedial instruction. I don't wait for her to call me. If my child cannot learn in the classroom what he must be taught, the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the parent... me. I won't let the school district just ignore his progress and hope for the best.