Today's papers report that a proposal has been tabled for the forthcoming annual conference of the Professional Association of Teachers which strikes me as batty even by modern standards. They want the word, and concept, of failure to be removed from schools and replaced with the phrase "deferred success". All failed exams will become "deferred passes".
Quite apart from the ridiculous idea that anyone benefits from this rubbish a "failure" is not the same thing as a "deferred pass". The latter indicates that a pass in the future is a certainty and may be awarded with no further effort.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
It sounds very American to me. I can't think of any examples right now (anyone?), but there are a lot. I think it is insulting because it assumes people are so stupid that they don't realize it really means "failure."
