A question in regards to school discipline

Failing grades need to be brought back - public school is easy as hell because it's pretty near impossible to actually fail and get held back. If you're a slower learner (and some people are) you shouldn't move ahead at the same speed as everyone, but at the speed at which you learn what you are supposed to.

I agree...kids are cruising through school now with a false sense of confidence, and what education they do get from going to school is meaningless if they're not learning an adequate amount. In today's day and age where people are afraid of hurting the kid's feelings, how are they ever going to properly mature and grow? Maybe failing kids in like kindergarten should not happen since there's not much rote learning going on, but I think past grade 6 or so, the requirements for passing should be more stringent.

I think in general there needs to be punishments of some sort, perhaps not in a physical form. If nothing else, at least detention is unpleasant. Kids, especially when they are younger, still function on a punishment-reward system, so if they can relate undesirable consequences to bad behaviours, I think it can still be somewhat effective. Of course, in this same system, there needs to be appropriate rewards for good behaviour too. =]