That's where that policy leads...

Unfortunately, I grew up very "spoiled", I wasn't allowed to work although I wanted to, and everything was given to me. I did have excellent grades (my sisters as well). Now that I find myself in the task of raising 2 children, I see how wrong was my parent's behavior and how I want to do things differently, fortunately DH comes from a "work for your own money" type of family and he believes that SD5 and BS1 have to "earn" their allowances, and everything else, and nothing should be given to them.

Again, I think that the "No fail policy" leads to mediocre people becoming "professionals". And I fully support the educational systems in countries like Switzerland and Japan in which "kids" are divided into categories. Let's face it, not every kid is going to be a doctor, lawyer, teacher, architect, etc... We need people to pack our groceries, build our houses, fix our cars. What these countries do, is that they divide the kids into the "technical" groups and the "university" groups at a young age, and work with them to fully develop their potential. Tha way they avoid having mediocre professionals in the workforce. I think is great, and go check it out, a GREAT succesful education standards, that compared to those here in U.S SUCK! big time...

~You can see clearly only with your heart. What is truly important is invisible to the eyes~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's

Is there an actual problem or is he just lazy? It has been my experience that if "alternative" approaches are taken, the grades could see an improvement. While it hasn't been very useful with my Sson, it helped with my "so called education" (my personal opinion of the public education in this country and probably best left at that).
Good luck

67% would be failing here. Anything below 70 is failing in my state. They go off the 7 point system here, not the 10 point. 100-93 = A, 92-85 = B, 84-77 = C and 76-70 = D. Makes things a lot harder! He better be glad he's not in my state!

"Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternizing with the enemy"

They have a policy similar to that in the Dallas Independent School District. You can't give a student a zero for not turning in homework. You have to give them chances to turn in the assignment. Then if they are failing you have to make some of their homework as extra credit. Retarded. They are not preparing kids for the real world.

Stupidity is an equal opportunity condition.

My SS had always been a high performing student ....... until 8th grade when he figured out that no one sees his grades but he, his mom and I and that it is nearly impossible to fail. Once he figured out that he could be the Golden Child for his teachers by being his usual personable, polite self and doing absolutely nothing ..... he did absolutely nothing. When we put him in a school where everyone knows exactly how everyone else if performing academically, in the community and athletically ...... he stepped way, way up and is doing great in all areas. They don't post grades publicly but the do post demerits and the reason (Grades, late for class, etc.....) Since he does not want to be on the demerit board and be walking tours during his free time he stays off of the board by doing what he knows he should be doing. It is not quite the same system that was in play in my day but it is working for my SS.

Now for the "back in the day" story. When I went off to high school each month all of the grades for each student were posted on the wall in the deans office ...... right next to your name.

Amazing how hard people worked when their performance was public and laid out right there on the wall next to everyone else's performance for all to see.

I used to have lower performing class mates come to my room during evening study and ask me for help and to show them how I studied and used my evening study time.

Most were able to raise their grades and at least stay out of the way of the people who would tease the lower performers. I loved seeing some of the historic poor performers figure it out and pass the loud mouths who quickly shut up when they were passed and became the poor performers.

The sad thing about the current system is that many if not most of these kids are going to go off to college expecting the same grades for similar effort and they are going to fail miserably.

When and if they graduate from college or bypass college for the workforce they are going to get smacked when they get their performance appraisals and raises each year because they are all going to expect top appraisals and raises for their historic level of work. When their hard working performing peers get 5% and they get .5% they are going to start screaming and whining.

There is a reason why competition develops top performers and the kindlier, gentler system creates poor performers.

I say put the grades on a big bulletin board in the hallway outside of the principals office and let the kids claim their performance ...... good or bad.

My S-I-L is a product of the current system and is absolutely incapable of making the connection between her effort and her complete lack of results. She came to live with us the year after she graduated from HS. We paid for college that year. She hated it because we would not allow her to skip class and we forced her to rewrite her work over and over and over until she was turning in something of quality. After a year she ran home to her Redneck boyfriend and community, squeezed out an out of wedlock child (if they were married they would have had to pay the hospital bill) and has complained incessantly about how mean and evil we were. Her grades were good enough to transfer to a local university where she has taken out multiple five figures in school loans and fails ~1/3 of her classes and barely passes the rest. She complains incessantly about how horrible her Profs are her counselor is etc... So, she begged and begged and begged for $900.00 so that she could be tested for a learning disability in the hope that is she could be classified as disabled she would get a break in grade performance. Well, my B-I-L "loaned" (there is not a snowballs chance in hell she will every pay him back) her the money and low an behold ....... she is mildly disabled (which is bullshit, she is just frickin lazy IMHO). But, she gets no benefit other than 2x as long to take tests and if she buys a second book they will cut the binding and run it through a character/voice converter which puts a computerized voice copy of the book on CD.

Guess what ....... she has to put the time in to listen to the reading assignments and actually perform on the tests. NOT HAPPENIN IN THIS WORLD ..... unless my wife and I have our foots firmly up her ass which we will not waste our time doing again.

She hinted around with us that she wanted the $900.00 for the test from us but we did nothing but tell her "good luck with that, let us know how it works out for you".

I truly hope and pray that she proves me wrong and actually finishes college. I will be the first to publicly state how wrong I am about her if she actually does it. But ....... she wants to be an elementary school teacher. Even if she actually graduates if my wife and I have another kid there is no frickin way I will allow my kid to be in a class taught by her. How can someone who to lazy to learn to read and write teach anyone else to do it???????????? WTF!!!!!!!!!!!

So ....... IMHO this system gives the lame, lazy and stupid a false sense of performance ....... the true performers will perform under any circumstance ....... so this system just grows the gap between the have's and the have not's which I am highly confident breaks out exactly along the lines of the performers and the non performers. I don't mean between the honor students and the C's students. I mean the people who actually work to earn their grades (C students to straight A students) and those who just play the system to get by.

Of course the truly learning disabled should not be subject to the public review of their grades and are exempt from my less than tender and sensitive perspective on this.

No offense intended to anyone.

Just my thoughts of course.

Phew, I feel better now.