"We don't fail anyone"

was the message.
An acquaintance in the US sent me (and all his work colleagues) a story about a teacher in the US who has been fired for refusing to do something absurd. If the story is correct she refused to give students who failed to even pass an assignment in 50%.
Is there a school out there really expecting teachers to give students 50% for doing nothing at all? 
In all likelihood there is more than one school doing just that. They are also doing harm at the same time.
Universities are also doing the same thing with some students. I was told I couldn't fail a certain group of students. I challenged the decision with respect to one student. He was not doing the work. He expected to  be passed without making an effort. Daddy was a diplomat in another country. His son was arrogant. He didn't like me. He didn't want to be taught anything by a woman. All that was made obvious. What angered me though was that this young man had not done well enough to get into university in his own country and strings had been pulled to get him into university here. I was told, "He's bright. He can do the work."
Perhaps he was bright - but he didn't do the work.
At law school they were strict about assignments being handed in on time - and rightly so because the courts won't wait for you. That said genuine excuses (and a medical certificate for illness) would be accepted. They were not unreasonable. 
I remember the Dean telling me about a former student who had failed a subject. He had a good track record and the staff thought it was bit odd. As was always the case they questioned the failure. It was someone else who told them that the boy's father had died the night before the exam. He had done the exam in the morning and gone home to his family in the afternoon. 
      "We offered to pass him on the basis of his work during the year but he chose to sit the exam again." 
I know who the student was because he told me about it later. He's at the top of the profession now.
In teacher training college there were constant failures to pass things in on time. It must have been infuriating for the staff. Most of the time students didn't even bother to ask for an extension. They simply handed things in late. There would be a deluge on a lecturer's desk on Mondays - because things had been due in on the previous Friday.
I asked for an overnight extension once, just once.  We had been given a number of assignments due on the first day of the new college term. College terms and school terms were not the same but I had gone home to my parents in the country and continued to work on them. While I was there my maternal grandmother died suddenly. My mother was given the usual three days "compassionate" leave and, because there were no relief/supply teachers available, I took over her class. It took all my time and energy to deal with that. I did none of my college work.  I went back to the city on the Friday before the Monday start and tried desperately hard to finish my work. I was thankful that the "holiday" period meant assignments were due on Monday. I'd been told when I began my teacher training that, because of my disability and doubts about my ability to be a teacher at all, I would not be given extensions under any circumstances. If I couldn't keep up I would be out. At 4:50pm - assignment due ten minutes later - I went to the lecturer in question. I had written the required assignment but I had not finished typing it up. 
I told him what had happened. I showed him I had written the assignment. Could I hand it in the following morning? I can remember quite literally holding my breath waiting for his answer. My future career depended on it.
     "You've done the work Cat."
And that is what mattered to him. I'd done the work. I passed the assignment in first thing the following morning.
Throughout the rest of my tertiary education I was first a "junior housemistress" in a  boarding school and then held down tutoring jobs in order to keep myself.  It didn't leave much time and I didn't have much money but I passed the exams and I handed my assignments in on time. There were other students in a similar position. 
If we could do it then why couldn't other students? I don't think I was particularly dedicated. Some of the things I needed to learn bored me silly. I can't remember a lot of what I had to learn in law school. It simply wasn't relevant to my job. But, I had to do it in order to get where I not just wanted but needed to go.
I know life is tough for some "kids". I know they are almost certainly "bored" at school but getting something for nothing isn't helping them. Giving them a "50" for doing nothing isn't going to motivate them. Having positive expectations about them instead might help.