[rtpg]

This comment lacks a bit of empathy.

If someone is trying, even if they fail, that means they are more likely to improve if they receive the right sort of feedback or support. Someone who isn't trying lacks even the basic motivation necessary to try.

Instead, if you treat someone who tries and fails the same as someone who doesn't and fails, then there is an incentive for the person to not even try!

For your parking ticket, if you geniunely tried to pay a parking ticket but couldn't (for example because you didn't have the money at the time) it totally doesn't make sense to charge you double. It would make more sense to do something like put you on a payment plan, or otherwise take into account that you have legitimate difficulties. Financial, organizational, or otherwise.

Zero tolerance policies do not "solve problems" because they ignore the individual contexts.

[rm_-rf_slash]

I lack ALL empathy for me when I am confronted with such a double fine. It was my wrongdoing, so I suck it up and pay up.

I, an adult of sound mind and stable finances, occasionally forget to pay parking tickets on time. I am punished by a doubling of the fine. I deserve that punishment by breaking the law a second time, and I pay for that violation of the law by paying the double fine. It sucks but I move on.

These edge case straw-men are not a productive retort to my statement.

[Bjartr]

The strawman here is the ticket & fine argument. Great that you can make an argument for how we should handle them, but it's not a productive argument because the goals of tickets & fines and grades are too different. Tickets & fines have (usually and for the most part, I don't doubt you could find some kind of counterexample) one goal, disincentivize the behavior that was ticketed. Grades serve multiple goals (and not everyone will even agree on the relative priority, and the two I mention are not comprehensive): First to measure attained level of skill, and second to incentiveize improving those skills over time. Both of these serve the higher level goal of actually educating students in a manner that results in them being productive members of society. If we acurately measure that half of all students are not adequately prepared we have failed them. So rather than throw around talk of zero tolerance policies, let's talk about how we might change things so that students will be better prepared for contributing to society, which is not well served by instilling in students a feeling of futility.

[rtpg]

I would say that even in the case of tickets, you can instill futility with the fines.

Many Americans spend basically their entire adult lives with outstanding fines against them, if only because it's not possible for them to ever pay the cumulative fines + subsequent punishments. Throw on issues like bail and you've built a system someone can fall into and never get out of