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Not Clever, "Successful"

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Reply 20

quintsy

kellywood_5

That sounds so similar to my experience of GCSE French, it's scary :p:

We did vocabulary tests every other lesson where we had to call out our mark out of 10 to be recorded and we had to do the same thing when we did past papers. Once I got full marks on a listening and the teacher said something like 'if one person is getting 100%, more of us should be' and I could literally feel the eyes of everyone in the class burning into me as they glared! I was not popular after that lesson :p:

Oh my- yes! :biggrin:

Our class divides into two halves once every two weeks and half of the lesson is spent normally, and the other half with the French assistant. Because we had less time, we often just did dictation or spontaneous translation with our normal teacher, and afterwards he would put the correct version up on the whiteboard and we had to tally up how many mistakes we made. He always gave us a target to aim for and asked if anyone beat it, as well as having an informal: "Who made the fewest errors- can anyone beat x errors?" competition.

There were only about 10-12 or so people in our half, so it didn't seem all that bad when I got the highest marks.. apart from when we found out that when the other half came back from the assistant and we left, they would do the same dictation/translation and our teacher would say: "Has anyone made less than x mistakes? Susie only got x.." Aughh.. in all seriousness my best friend became so mad at me as a result.. all over these little informal competitions!

Reply 21

kellywood_5

suuuuuuseh

Aughh.. in all seriousness my best friend became so mad at me as a result.. all over these little informal competitions!

Lol, I guess it was better for me without the whole all girls grammar school competitiveness :p:

Reply 22

ZanyZanny

i have just read the bit about replacing failure with deferred success that is great now when ever i fail at something i will say deferred success that is hilarious

Reply 23

stratomaster

I agree with Matt Munro, Bristol, You tell em lad.

Reply 24

quintsy

kellywood_5

Lol, I guess it was better for me without the whole all girls grammar school competitiveness :p:

Hehe

Although I suppose people do still take it quite seriously sometimes, regardless of where you are.

Reply 25

humeiscool!

But if 'deferred success' and 'successful' are to be used by teachers, it would mean they *are* being used in 'real life'...and i think that IS political correctness gone mad

Anecdotal evidence, but all my teachers used to constantly take the piss out of stupid government initiatives and the like. Teachers are not automatons, the only times they may use language like that is if ofstead are in!

Reply 26

ExitMusic

Oh how schools change when they're being inspected

Reply 27

quintsy

Optimistic

Oh how schools change when they're being inspected

Haha, I love the irony with your comment and your username. :biggrin:

But sadly, as much as it is a cynical view, it is correct. It does make me laugh the way during inspections teachers act like "periods for reflection to think through ideas raised" and starter activities are completely normal and that they do them all of the time..

Reply 28

mariska99

Ridiculous! I haven't been successful in the slightest this year, but I am damn clever.

Reply 29

saiyamanadingdongbanana

thats gonna be just as bad. Imagine, for example, people who work hard but are not considered clever... do we call them unsuccessful, despite they are giving it 100%?

Reply 30

satisverborum2003

I believe the most important point is:

What kind of teachers calls their pupils "clever" in the first place?

In all my years of being in school I've never heard no teacher addressing someone as clever even though they're really smart.

Reply 31

harr

I don't think renaming somethings solves anything (which is why I dislike the way that this forum blocks the well defined scientific word "******" while many minor swearwords are not blocked), the stigma just gets attached to a different word. Pupils are bullied for being intelligent, not for teachers saying so.

The phrase "political correctness gone mad" irritates me just as much though. People regurgitating phrases tends to stop them thinking about the subject, not to mention that it is very annoying reading the same string of words over and over again. I know that it gets the point across, it is just overused.

Reply 32

MissSurfer

For a start, teachers should be allowed to say anything whatsoever about being clever in front of the class. That includes 'successful'.

I've been told I am clever, a star and 'you've finished all your work/coursework already and the rest of you haven't hardly started!'. Being told I was clever wasn't that bad - I was in a 6th form class so all of us taking the subject are A/B students anyway, and I'd actually got something wrong (it was 'see.. you're clever and you can't understand it fully so it must be hard!'). However, the other two times (star and finishing work first), were in mixed set GCSE classes. I was not too popular after that. It was so embarassing!

But yes, I do think this is stupid. Maybe people should concentrate on more important things in life.

Reply 33

invicta

hmm, i dunno.all this political correctness is garbage. i reckon that, as demonstrated by MissSurfer, it is actually a valid concern that is important to "young people". personally speaking, id prefer to be called "successful" rather than "clever" for the sake of interest. ive been called "clever" sooooooooo many times, believe it or not, its now a bit boring :redface:

and anyway teachers at my school dont really call any1 clever, etc. probably school policy to prevent the not so clever people from feeling bad :rolleyes:

Reply 34

crankycaz

It's all *******s! How can failure be called deferred success anyway? Failure isn't success that just hasn't come yet necessarily, someone could fail something their whole life! And not being able to say blackboard...

As for the clever vs. successful thing, if I were not so 'clever' or 'successful' I don't think I would prefer the new alternative, as if I wasn't successful, then I would be unsuccessful, therefore a failure again!

Like I said initially, all *******s.

Reply 35

quintsy

Suzi_law

This is almost as stupid as the fact that we're not allowed to say "Blackboard" or "Brainstorm"

Are we really not supposed to say 'blackboard' anymore? I thought it was less a case of political correctness causing the word to be phased out; but more a case of blackboards themselves being phased out in favour of whiteboards with eraseable pens, and as a result the word not being used anymore because of the lack of blackboards.

I think banning words because of what they could be interpreted to mean, or what one person in the past took them to mean is rather stupid. As long as when you say "brainstorm" you aren't referring to the following:

[..] Ireland's Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment has banned the use of the word "brainstorm," out of a fear that it might offend those with brain disorders, such as epilepsy or a brain tumor.

(http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050701/0158205_F.shtml)

(i.e. making a pejorative remark about those who suffer from brain disorders) then I don't think there is a problem.

The power of words, eh?

Reply 36

a_man_1066

FYI, Chalkboard is the 'PC' blackboard
Thought Shower is the 'PC' Brainstorm

Ha! Thought Shower! It makes me think of some guy running round the class throwing confetti 'thoughts' over everyone....

Of course no-one ever uses these, it's just what some authorities have suggested. I don't know about you, but the only time my teachers have used these words is as an example of PC gone mad in English....
To sum up: People know who the clever people are whether or not the teacher says it

Me, the most cringeworthy moment I think was when I recieved back a Maths past paper I had done especially well in and gained an A* grade. Written across the front of the paper, most people just had their marks. I had "You are A*! (can't believe this, say it aloud and you'll get it) Luckily only I saw it, god knows if anyone else had....

Reply 37

AisAis

Usually I hear teachers call students, in my mixed ability classes, 'stars' when they are the type who scrape an E in every test and then do something like finish their notes first. It's slightly patronising but makes you feel all fuzzy and five-years old inside :smile:

I've heard teachers call people clever infront on the class, only because they do things like work out how to open the blind (they're always broken). It's not really belittling to anyone else, so there's no reason for the cleveree to feel 'uncool'.

I've been called 'clever' a few times, but only when I'm stuck on a hard bit of work and am feeling a bit lost with the subject. It's just as enouragement, and I can't see much wrong with that.

Teachers seem to use 'bright' lots though, I guesse that's a looser term then 'clever' because 'clever' usually means academic whereas 'bright' could mean quirky or something.

'Succesful'? Well, dosen't that go into the debate as to whether GCSEs award 'clever' pupils ect ect?