Deferred Success

Remember this? More fun with words...

From EducationGuardian (Jul 19):

The word "fail" should be deleted from the school vocabulary and replaced with the term "deferred success", according to a group of teachers. Being told they are a failure in class can put children off education for the rest of their lives, they said. The idea will be put forward by members of the Professional Association of Teachers at the union's annual conference in Buxton, Derbyshire, next week.

Some days later (Aug 2):

Liz Beattie gracefully accepted her fate at the Professional Association of Teachers' annual conference in Buxton. The retired teacher hit the headlines as the woman who wanted the word "fail" replaced by the more gentle "deferred success" in classrooms across the country. But when the hall came to vote on her motion, only five people backed her plan. Not a failure, exactly, more a deferred success. "I've got quite fond of being called a barking mad old biddy," she cheerily told delegates.

Reminds me of a story about Abraham Lincoln:

One of Lincoln's favorite questions for his sons was, "How many legs would a dog have if you called its tail a leg?" His sons answered "Five!" But Lincoln always told them, "No, it would have only four. Calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg."

Sometimes, it really is the case that plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...