I just read the following:
http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?contentPK=7138184&command=submit&sourceNode=57711&nodeId=57711&voteOption=1
Is it a joke? Please? I mean, it can’t be true that the UK is really sliding into such a miserable and pathetic state that your schools are actually going to do this. It has to be a newspaper prank, right?
[Edited main thread title for clarity. – MEB]
Want to try that link again?
Between you and me, I think you may have screwed up the link.
I guess it depends on what your favourite child psychologist says; do you encourage 7, 11 and 14 year-olds or do you say ‘failure’. I don’t know. Instinctively, I’m not sute to categorise 7 year olds in that way, especially given they’re the most examined kids in Europe now, or so I read elsewhere . . .
Any child experts in the house?
Exactly what I am thinking.
I think it is actually I good idea. It changes the way we look at things. It is a first step in the direction of easing the pressure which is put on students.
A good crack of the leather or the cane across their backsides that’s what they need. Rulers with metal sides that cut your hand when you’re hit with them and MAD Christian brothers just to kick the crap out of you for the fun of it. Young people don’t know they’re born.
Never did me any harm. Now where’s the nearest water tower?
It doesn’t really matter what you call it, because cruel little children will still use it as if it meant “fail” - at my school, “special achievement” was used as an insult.
That said, maybe 7-year-olds don’t need to be called failures by adults - leave that to their peers.
I remember hearing once that American students had the highest self esteem of developed countries, and the worst knowledge of basic math science and geography. I apologize for not having a cite, but if this is true I think a little less “touchy-feely” crap and a little more “nose to the grindstone” is called for.
I don’t think you get to feel good about yourself just by default. If you’re a screw-up someone should point it out and get your ass back on the right track. There are probably a good number if prison inmates who didn’t need to end up where they did but just had a lack of caring but stern direction.
Oh yeah, and on Prize Day every year, we lived in fear of getting the “Progress Prize”. Anyone who got awarded it was branded a Joey Deacon.
Instead of having “answers” on a math test, they should just call them “impressions,” and if you got a different “impression,” so what, can’t we all be brothers? – Jack Handey
joey deacon!
ha ha ha, lost his shoe over the side of the boat!
nick
Well intentioned, perhaps, but misguided. My wife teaches music to 11-18 yr olds. One school she knows of issued guidelines that (a) all homework/classwork marking should be done in green ink (red is too confrontational) and (b) only the first X spelling mistakes on a page should be corrected (I can’t remember what X was, it’s the fact that X is not necessarily equal to the number of mistakes on the page that I find depressing).
God help these kids when they start applying for jobs.
At 7 years old ? I’d think even the Japanese would be impressed with your early emphasis on career preparation.
Dogface – what is your argument ?
No, not at 7 
- my wife teaches secondary, not primary. What I’m getting at is that if you don’t correct spelling mistakes, the kid may well think that what they wrote was correct - and you couldn’t really blame them. You could very well end up with the situation that a certain word will be corrected one week and ignored the next.
"Dogface – what is your argument ?" – London_Calling asked distractingly.
Speaking on behalf of Dogface, who seems to be temporarily out of pocket, I think** Dogface** is posing the question…
Have the people in England gone stark raving bonkers in their dumb-headed embrace of political corectness by pretending that their rosy-cheeked children will have a better future if they are told great lies?
Hmm…after thinking about it…You are right! There is no argument here!
Hey Dogface, move on to somethimg we can debate.
Just more of the same rubbish from the folks who brought you “[url=“http://www.aacap.org/publications/factsfam/72.htm”]Oppositional Defiant Disorder”/url]". An excerpt:
[quote]
In children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), there is an ongoing pattern of uncooperative, defiant, and hostile behavior toward authority figures that seriously interferes with the youngster’s day to day functioning. Symptoms of ODD may include:[ul][li] frequent temper tantrums [/li][li] excessive arguing with adults [/li][li] active defiance and refusal to comply with adult requests and rules [/li][li] deliberate attempts to annoy or upset people [/li][li] blaming others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior [/li][li] often being touchy or easily annoyed by others [/li][li] frequent anger and resentment [/li][li] mean and hateful talking when upset [/li][li] seeking revenge[/ul][/li][/quote]
What I see in the above description is, “bully in the making.” Nothing that some good hour long time-outs, grounding and (possibly) a dose of spanking won’t cure.
When you flunk a test, you did not “nearly pass” it. You may as well have passed it into the toilet for all it’s worth. Coddling children with unrealistic assessments of their performance only leads to a false sense of entitlement. Recently, I saw a superb quote about this exact problem:
“Never has there been a generation of children so filled with self-esteem for so little reason.”
Here’s that link again, Oppositional Defiant Disorder