Why Captain Zero matters

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Lynden Dorval has earned the nickname 'Captain Zero' for giving his students zeros, a practice that resulted in his dismissal. (RICK MACWILLIAM / POSTMEDIA NEWS ARCHIVES)

Captain Zero. The name has a nice '50s-ish, comic-book ring about it, doesn't it? A good name for a science-fiction character, or maybe a polar adventurer braving extremes of cold and wind in search of some kind of Holy Grail.

Indeed, Captain Zero was the swashbuckling hero of a pulp fiction series popular during the '50s. In Search of Captain Zero is also the title of a book (later made into a movie) about two young men who grew up surfing together on Long Island during the '50s, then took very different routes through life before reuniting, many years later, in Central America.

Fast forward about six decades. Now "Captain Zero" is the nickname that has been given to Edmonton high school physics teacher Lynden Dorval. While the published pictures of Dorval do suggest a certain similarity between him and Clark Kent, he neither bends steel in his bare hands nor leaps tall buildings in a single bound.

That said, Dorval is, certainly, pursuing truth and justice, if not the American way. Whether truth and justice will prevail in this most bizarre saga remains to be seen.

What Dorval does -- and the reason he has been given his nickname -- is give zeros to students who don't pass in their work or show up for tests.

"How extraordinary!" you'll say. "About as remarkable as a boss docking the pay of someone who doesn't show up for work."

But in the rarefied atmosphere of the Edmonton school board for which he works, what Dorval has been doing is remarkable, and demands great courage. You see, Dorval is unfortunate enough to work for one of Alberta's "No zero" boards. By doing what at least 99 out of 100 readers would regard as nothing more than his plain duty as an educator, Dorval has been deemed by his superiors to be guilty of insubordination.

After several warnings and reprimands, Dorval was first placed on indefinite suspension, then, at the end of August, terminated from the teaching position he has held for 35 years. As this is being written, Dorval is undergoing a termination hearing before Edmonton's superintendent of schools, Edgar Schmidt.

There isn't space here for a full discussion of the crack-brained assumptions underlying the "No zero" policy used not just by Dorval's board but by a fair number of other boards in Alberta.

Suffice it to say the "No zero" crowd considers students pathetically frail creatures whose psyches will be wounded, perhaps permanently, by the trauma of receiving a grade of zero for work not done.

According to letters from Dorval's principal, Ron Bradley, cited in a recent National Post article, the purpose of "No zero" is to avoid discouraging students and to hold them accountable for completing their work.

Come again? If you can show me the accountability in allowing a student who has done no work to get a grade other than zero, I've got a bridge I'd be happy to sell you, very cheap.

That's not all. According to the Post, by handing out zeros to students who didn't do their work, Dorval was, in the eyes of his superiors, guilty of imposing a disciplinary rather than an academic sanction.

In truth, it's Dorval's superiors who are guilty of muddling disciplinary and academic processes by imposing discipline on a teacher who was simply doing his job. (I, for one, hope he will use this argument at his hearing and at his appeal, if the case should go that far.)

This case has enormous implications, both for education and for the Canadian public at large. To educators, the message is that politically motivated no-fail policies can trump both professional standards and common sense. To say Dorval's superiors' actions won't help attract dedicated young people to teaching is to understate things considerably.

To the Canadian public, the case is further evidence -- as if more were needed -- of how the school system is failing to do its job. If students aren't made aware, early on, of the consequences of non-performance, they will be at a severe disadvantage in the real world, where bosses don't hesitate to dock no-shows and fire non-performers -- without the slightest worry whether they are thereby leaving a permanent scar on the non-performer's psyche.

It's high time an aroused Canadian public stood up and gave "no zero" a big, fat 'F,' with a note adding that the policy's adherents need to stay after school until they've come up with a policy more accurately reflecting human nature and the requirements of the real world.

Jon Peirce is a Dartmouth, N.S.-based freelance writer and retired union representative who spent more than a decade teaching English and industrial relations at the university level.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 15, 2012 J6