Been thinking...

I have been thinking about Nutana's change in policy about not awarding F's to students. I realize as John said in class that a rose is rose by any other name...but I think that this is a step foward. Words and what is uaually associated with them can often hurt and demoralize a person moreso than any other form of abuse. I think F is one of these and the schemas that go along with it. If you get an F you are a failure, clear as can be. Sure we think that this might lose meaning to people and they simply don't care, but have we asked them about how they "truly" feel about getting an F? Is this not contradictory to the Ministry's effort to build lifelong learners? By giving them in incomplete it does not indicate that they are failures, it indicates hope and that they just came up short. Often with these students hope is a much better way of appraoching them to succeed than failure. Without the negative stereotype of being seen as a failure these students might come back to finish what they started. If one of our main jobs is to help build character and perservence does not an incomplete work towards that goal of lifelong learners rather than an F?