Failure fails the teacher test

I have an almost pathological hatred of the phrase �political correctness gone mad�.It’s one of those stock phrases people on the right of politics use to avoid engaging with the issues that are important to the left. But then, every now and again, something comes along which almost begs you to use the phrase, a temptation which I’m trying to avoid:

BBC NEWS | Education | Teachers say no-one should ‘fail’:

�Deferred success� should replace the idea of failure for low-achieving pupils, a teachers’ organisation will hear at its annual conference.

The Professional Association of Teachers will be told next week the label of failure could undermine children’s enthusiasm for school.

Some teachers seem to have lost sight of the fact that school’s main purpose is not to teach kids information, it’s to provide them with the skills they need to cope with the adult world. The adult world is littered with competition and failure. By depriving children of the chance to explore this in school, they’re failing them. And that’s a shame – and possibly far more than that for the kids.

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