ABC News reported that the public high schools in Grand Rapids, Michigan, have decided to give out “H” grades in lieu of a failing “F” grade. The “H” stands for “held,” and means the student has twelve weeks to do the work and fix the problem.

Yale University professor of psychology and child psychiatry, Alan Kazdin, makes an excellent point in his interview:

[Kazdin] believes that schools that veer away from giving children the grades they have earned – even when it’s a zero or an “F” – aren’t doing anyone any good.

“Children aren’t going to gain from ambiguous information regarding their grades,” said Kazdin.

“The fact is children are failing yet we don’t want to call it that,” said Kazdin. “It’s this whole notion that everyone’s a winner and everyone gets a trophy.”

Kazdin argues that children are perceptive enough that they will eventually realize they aren’t doing well in school whether teachers give them “F”s or not, and that hiding their true level of achievement will only confuse them further.

“The task is to change the reality, not the labeling of it,” he said.

Providing detailed feedback on what children can do to improve their grades is imperative, said Kazdin. While students may feel initially feel demoralized when they receive a failing grade, Kazdin said that by providing them with specific ways to improve their class standing they will eventually benefit from the traditional grading system.

Getting an “F” sends a pretty clear message to a kid that they are not getting it done, for whatever reason (learning issues, home issues, crappy school issues, etc.). Kids don’t need a bigger and brighter neon sign pointing out their academic inadequacies; they need a teacher or two to sit down with them and figure out what isn’t getting done, why it isn’t getting done, and how the kid can begin to dismantle the seemingly insurmountable mound of emotional and educational sh*t that has piled up in said kid’s life.

Someone help them fix it for god’s sake. And if they’re trying to flunk out on purpose, well, that’s too damn bad. They’re going to have to find a different school district ‘cause there will apparently be no flunking out of the Grand Rapids school district.