BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option

Subject: RE: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 10:31 AM

Well, in a spiritual sense there perhaps are no failures, just learning experiences...but it depends on the context. I can see both pros and cons to the idea. If a sense of "failure" induces guilt or self-hatred in a person, that is not productive. If it induces a strong desire in the person to do better next time, that is great.

Hitler's attack on Russia was not "deferred success"...LOL! No, what is was, was this: a mistake. A HUGE, GIANT MISTAKE.

Don't confuse mistakes with failures to reach desirable goals. Mistakes are not worth repeating. Incomplete attempts in a useful direction are worth repeating and improving upon.

Subject: RE: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: Noreen
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 10:29 AM

In case anyone thinks this is how most UK teachers think I'd like to make it clear that the PAT whose conference Ms Beattie will speak at, represents a miniscule proportion of the teaching profession- perhaps for obvious reasons.

Subject: RE: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: JennyO
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 10:26 AM

Well, I don't think I'd be too impressed if I had an accident because my brakes deferred their success!

Jenny

Subject: RE: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: Shakey
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 10:25 AM

Well I suppose if some people looked upon their marriage as a deferred success instead of a failure then there wouldn't be so many kids achieving deferred success in their exams.

Subject: RE: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: MBSLynne
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 10:14 AM

Hehe Guest! I like that. I'm sure there must be lots of situations in which we could constructively use 'deferred success' instead of failure! I must put my mind to it! anyone else?

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: DMcG
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:32 AM

Ruth Kelly - the Education Minister - awarded this idea "0 out of 10" on the radio today. It is hard to believe anyone thinks this a good idea, but evidently someone does.

Subject: RE: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:32 AM

MZ Beattie is sadly mistaken. If you miss a curve and wrap your pickuop around a tree, with mortal consequences, it is NOT because you were "going to make the curve later".

Failing might well make a student less enthusiastic, and getting great grades makes him feel more enthusiastic. If it all just amounts to succeeding anyway, and failing equals succeeding deferred, then there should be no test. The teachers should not use them, because they will succeed sooner or later, so why bother?

A

Subject: RE: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:29 AM

Just more political correctitude. Kids need to recognize the real world, not have their little egos protected at all costs.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:29 AM

It's not you and it's not the world. It's the idea that we have to protect children from reality.

This would mean that Hitler's attack on Russia, The "Atlantic Wall," the Vanguard space satellite, your attempt to put the moves on that young lady, that terrible moment in chemistry when the experiment exploded, the cake in which you used cement instead of flour, and a host of other things big and small, were "deferred successes."

"Well, folks, the home team was deferentially successful in their bid to take the national championship today."

"The President's policy in Urkganistan is a deferred success."

Subject: RE: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:27 AM

LOL you can just imagine telling the cop with the positive breathalyser test in his hand that he has made a mistake, you haven't failed , just deferred your success.

Subject: RE: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: gnu
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:26 AM

Not you.

Subject: RE: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:25 AM

Words (are successfully deferred) me

Subject: BS: Oh Dear, failure is not an option
From: Shakey
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:17 AM

The Professional Association of Teachers will be told at its meeting next week that the label of failure could undermine pupils' enthusiasm.

Liz Beattie, a retired teacher, will call on the association's annual gathering in Buxton, Derbyshire, to "delete the word 'fail' from the educational vocabulary to be replaced with the concept of 'deferred success'".

Is it me or has the world gone mad?