The Mount Olive school district of New Jersey has made a pronouncement: “D” is just not good enough. And there is a lesson for life and leadership in here. The district has dropped “D” from the grading system, so a student may get an A, B, or C for a grade, or an F for failing. Their argument is that “D” is just not useful in life and society. Who wants to hire a worker who is just short of failure, but not really accomplishing anything?
Perhaps it is true that when any of us completely fail at something, and then have the opportunity to try again to really succeed, we’re better off than being given a “just passing” grade. It is hard for anyone to admit failure because we view it as a dead end street. But perhaps the worse thing is to languish in the land of “barely passing”–the “D” report card. (More on this story here.)
Scripture and history teach us this: failure is an opportunity for a turnaround. What do you think?