Imagine this...you’re sitting in your office at work and you’re staring out the window out into the great big world around you. You are serene and relaxed and you feel like there’s nothing that can go wrong for you.
You survived the “struggle” of scholastics to get yourself here. The world is your oyster, you feel. Your first couple weeks here have been cake thus far.
Then the door opens to your office. It’s your employer. AKA Your Boss.
She slams the door shut, startling you and snapping you out of your daydream about how good you have it.
And then it happens...
Boss: It’s 10 o’clock! I asked you to have those reports on my desk, Monday morning before 9 o’clock!
You: ... -glazed over look-
Boss: WELL?! Where are they?!
You: -pointing to a disheveled pile on the corner of your desk- They’re right there. Kinda.
Boss: Kinda? What does that mean, “kinda”? Kinda what?
You: Well they’re kinda done. That kinda.
Boss: -looking over the material- WHAT THE HELL IS THIS MESS?! This isn’t even half done!
You: Well that means it’s half done at least.
Boss: Excuse me? What the Hell does THAT mean?!
You: Well you said that it wasn’t even half done, but it’s actually about half done.
Boss: -clenching her fists in frustration- I’m sorry. So you’re saying that you’re aware that the reports are only HALF done, and that you’re okay with that?
You: -nodding- You gave me the weekend to do them and I told you I’d do my best.
Boss: -face flushing with exasperation- And then I said your “best” better mean completed and on my desk at 9 o’clock Monday morning. You remember me saying THAT?
You: -nodding- Yep. I forgot that there was a (live stream on Twitch/favorite indie band in town/gamers convention/Netflix marathon/etc.) this past weekend. I had to work around that and ran out of time.
Boss: ... -about to pass out and she is speechless-
You: Hey at least I did some of it. That has to count for something, right?
Boss: -passes out from the overwhelming amount of stupid she just experienced-
The above scenario is exactly what kids of today feel the real world will be like when they get out of school. And all thanks to the lovely, fantastic, super awesome “No Fail Policy” that most schools employ these days.
The simple act of NOT giving a student a mark of zero for a failed test, or unsubmitted work. The simple act of NOT holding them back a grade as a result of their collection of zeroes for failed tests and unsubmitted work. The simple act of allowing them to retake tests that they may have otherwise bombed so hard it set a new standard of useless, or one they missed entirely and altogether “because reasons”.
The simple act of failing to fail them when they need it the most.
By choosing to NOT fail these kids when they are in grade school, we, as a society are failing them in life. A life they will experience first hand when they leave the confines of the school walls and halls.
Otherwise known affectionately as The Real World.
Kids today who have never had to experience failure in grade school, and never had to face a zero for a failed test or unsubmitted work are walking out into The Real World expecting fully that this is how it works there too. And they are all sorely disappointed that in fact, this is so NOT how The Real World operates and it never will.
Kids who feel that they should get some credit for simply showing up (6th paragraph). As though that should be enough for any one person. They showed up, so that has to count for something, right? They could’ve just stayed home but instead they chose to show up, so that should be all that’s needed, right?
Holy fuck...WRONG.
When we were in grade school, if we didn’t do well on a test we got the mark we earned. If that mark was low or failing, it was because we either didn’t know the material well enough and refused to do anything to better ourselves in preparation for the test, or we didn’t fucking care enough to try and got what we got because hey, our social life was far more important.
If we had an assignment and we failed to hand ours in by the deadline (which was admittedly typically very generous depending on the amount required to submit), it meant we got a big fat fucking F for the lack of submission. That too was our choice, or our lack of comprehension on the subject matter that we took no steps to counter. All in, still a choice we made. We earned that F because we didn’t hand in shit.
If we made it to the end of the school year without being bounced out on our ass, and they took a look at our overall achievements for the year and took stock of the multitude of zeroes and Fs on our account...they knew they couldn’t advance us to the next grade because that would be reckless and irresponsible. If we couldn’t “get it” in the grade we were currently in, how the fuck are we gonna “get it” in the next one? So they held us back a year. Not a do-over, but rather a consequence.
Fast forward some years and we now live in a society that refuses to fail kids. Refuses to grade them an F they so richly deserve. Refuses to award them a zero they also earned. Refuses to hold the kid back a year because clearly they’re in no goddamn condition to advance to the next one.
A society that puts “the feels” before the harsh reality of The Real World. A society that has doomed an entire generation of kids who will enter The Real World with no fucking basic sense of what it means to fail, and how best to cope with such things. A society that robbed an entire generation of critical thinking skills and coping mechanisms. A society of “participation ribbon kids”.
By failing to fail them...society has actually failed them grievously. Yet some have staunchly tried to advocate the “benefits” of failing to fail. The truth is plain to see, however – we have failed our kids by refusing to fail them. We have denied them the basic building blocks in life. Namely (and in no particular order), responsibility, accountability, consequence, critical thinking and coping mechanisms.
They walk into The Real World with no fucking clue how any of it actually works. Since they never had to face failure in classes, they have no means to face it when they encounter it in The Real World. They are left defenseless and helpless, and yes, clueless too.
First failure to them will see some manner of whining to their folks in the hopes they can “make it right”, or in a workplace scenario, raising a ruckus and suggesting that they will call Human Rights or just a lawyer and we’ll “see you in court!” when they get fired for being complete fuckups who feel The Real World operates just like it did in school.
Thankfully at least one province “gets it” and have officially scrapped the “No Fail/No Zero Policy”. Hard to believe that of all the provinces, that Newfoundland and Labrador lead the way in the fight to restore common sense to the classrooms. Not a knock on them so much, but really, out of all the provinces we expected someone like Alberta or even British Columbia to lead the way on that front. It doesn’t matter who gets the first crack though...shots have now been fired. With any luck, the first of many more to come.
To quote some of the material we pored over today leading up to this entry, one remarked the following and it is glorious:
“A pilot who never flies a plane, an electrician who never wires a house, and a journalist who never hands in a story can all expect to get paid nothing. Employers aren’t going to accommodate employees who can’t be bothered to submit their work. Teachers need to prepare their students for this reality.”
Or like the example we presented at the beginning of this entry. How much should you earn when you fail to submit work expected of you? The answer is still zero. You did half of it, but that is not enough to present to their bosses, so you may as well have done none of it for all it matters. You fucking failed to meet expectations and yet still feel entitled to credit/compensation/award/praise for the half-assed slop you did present. You expected your participation ribbon at the very least.
Somewhere along the lines, society shifted away from common sense and delved deep into what Little Johnny or Little Suzie “feels”. How would a zero make them “feel”? How would it impact Little Johnny or Suzie’s “feels” and self esteem if they were held back?
Did they earn the zero? Did they accumulate enough failures that year to warrant being held back? Then fuck them. Fuck them and their “feels”. Let them fail or be held back and let them face it head on. Let them develop coping mechanisms. Let them learn that there are consequences in life, and no, you don’t get do-overs. Let them pout and cry and pitch a fit from the highest rooftop if they think it’ll help.
But for fuck’s sake fail them. Fail them if they earned the failure. Fail them if they deserve the failure. Fail them if they warrant the failure. It teaches them accountability and personal responsibility. It teaches them there are no shortcuts in life, and no one is gonna give two warm shits about how a thing makes you “feel” when you’re on the clock and on their payroll.
You think your employer is gonna care at all that you don’t “feel” like doing a thing you were asked to do? Are you employed by them? Yes? Are you being paid by them for your time there? Yes? Then they couldn’t care one iota about how a thing makes you “feel”. They’re paying for productivity, and don’t care one bit about your fucking “feels”. You DO or you’re GONE.
It’s that simple.
We need to see this step by Newfoundland and Labrador as the first of many to follow. It HAS to be the death knell for the absurdity that is the “No Fail/No Zero Policy” in society, in Canada and the US and anywhere else this bulshittery exists today.
Never before in human history have we had so many incapable and utterly useless people as we do today, and all thanks to the no fail garbage. Society made this all possible and society can undo the catastrophic nonsense they started with the mere wave of a pen. It’s up to society at large to reverse the course they set and established, and to once again deploy and foster plain old common sense as a staple.
As we have said so many times before, common sense has become so uncommon that it may as well be classified as a fucking superpower.
Free your 8
~ SC
As always, if you have any questions, concerns, comments or suggestions, feel free to leave them below or contact us.
