F That!

What is it with schools and teachers these days? It used to be that grading was on a A-F scale, F being a fail, or Satisfactory, Marginal, Fail/Unsatisfactory.

Now, someone in academia has the bright idea of treating Fail as a dirty word and wants to use H instead.

At public schools in Grand Rapids, Mich., high school students will no longer receive "F"s but instead will earn the letter "H" when their work falls woefully short.

Superintendent Bernard Taylor told ABCNews.com that the "H" stands for "held," and is a system designed to give students a second chance on work that was not up to par.

"I never see anyone doing anything but punishing kids," said Taylor. "If the choice is between letting kids fail and giving them another opportunity to succeed, I'm going to err on the side of opportunity."

It's nonsense.

Semantics doesn't absolve the student of not making the grade. They failed. Why treat it as something different.