“I’ve been failing a lot of tests recently.” – Bart Simpson
“Yuh-huh.” – Otto
“And now they’re talking about holding me back in the fourth grade if I don’t shape up.” – Bart Simpson
“That’s it? Hey, relax, man. It could end up being the best thing that ever happened to you. I got held back in the fourth grade myself, twice! And look at me, man: now I drive the school bus!” – Otto
Dead Homer Society 
5 responses to “Quote of the Day”
Here’s a question, do kids ever get held back for real anymore? I can’t even remember that happening when I was going to school, not even a rumor. It seems things like summer school and tutoring would be more effective anyway.
Two true stories: 1) there was a kid in my first grade class who got held back and repeated first grade the next year while the rest of us were in second grade. 2) I don’t know how close it actually was, but they were threatening me with getting held back in the fourth grade. Mine was for massive absences not flunking history, but Bart Gets an F premiered the next fall, so that one’s always had a personal resonance for me.
Wow, being held back in the first grade?? Sounds like massive issues there, but I’d guess more with the school than the kid, but I could be wrong. Fourth grade, still seems harsh and ineffective, but not as bad as first. I didn’t have a lot of absences, but I was often late (usually not my fault) and enough of them accumulated would count as “absences”, for whatever reason, if you were over a certain amount of time. I just made them up with after school work like helping in the library. Mind you, none of my schools were the greatest, even had major problems with certain teachers in elementary, but I don’t know, maybe it’s a state by state thing.
My mother is an elementary school teacher and she recommends a child be held back maybe once every 2-3 years. It really only happens if they have developmental issues.
Also, I’m the same age as the series and when I was a kid, if you made it to roughly 3rd grade there was about zero chance of being held back after that.
Since your mom is a teacher, it sounds like she’s probably a better authority on this than me, but I’d still think something a little less drastic like I mentioned before (tutoring/summer school) would be better for the kids, especially if they have said developmental issues.