The Challenge:

“Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?”

– Thomas John Watson Sr., IBM, CEO of IBM (1914-1956)

Students have grown up in the trophy generation. That is not only do all participants on the winning team receive a trophy, but everyone even those on the losing team get trophies. The expectation is that you always get rewarded no matter the outcome or effort. Failure, when it happens is not acceptable and not confronted. Avoidance and disdain for failure is part of education culture. I do not think, of course that failure should be glorified, and it is not something you strive for. But I do think that as parents and educators we need to convey that failure is not a dark and ominous thing but should be recognized as an inevitable part of life and should be deliberately managed as part of a student’s education. We all fail, the critical point is to teach our students that failure is an essential part of learning. Our students need to realize and internalize that failure is the spark of creatively and success. The question is how can we make failure resiliency part of our teaching?

A Solution:

The brief ideas and suggestion in the KBLOB Solution below came from the articles in the resource section and my own experience. I strongly suggest you read the articles for details.

1.      Student are motivated by teachers who care about them; teachers who personally talk about their fears and failures. Share your failures and shortcomings. Students love to hear the life stories, the humor, struggles and failures of their mentors. An educator is a role model for students. How you, as an educator model failure and demonstrate its use to improve and innovate is the most effective tool to help students understand the necessity of failure.

2.     Create a safe, unsafe space: Do not delude students into thinking failure should not exist, students should feel safe to make mistakes and to be challenged, errors should never be judged negatively but what can positivity they sprout.

3.     Avoid a grade-obsessed environment: Do not over emphasize grading, but do not disregard it either. Celebrate students who do well and students who improve their grades. Do not grade or grade in the same way every item that students complete.

4.    Build failure into lesson plans: Include challenging tasks in your lessons that you know students will struggle with. Help them work through the difficult tasks.

5.    Quiz before students learn material: Have students take a quiz on material that they have not learned, after the material has been worked on give them another quiz, it shows them how much they have learned.

6.    Do not answer every question: Challenge students to find the answer to class questions on their own and report back.

7.     If a student fails, do not say “try harder next time.”  Talk to them in depth to help them discover avenues for improvement.

8.    Never underestimate the positive impact you can have on a   struggling child’s later life course. Reward and honor struggle!

Resources:  

Six Counter Intuitive Strategies to Boost Student learning -

https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-counterintuitive-strategies-to-boost-student-learning\

Why Failure is Better Than Success for Learning-

https://www.waterford.org/education/why-failure-is-better-than-success-for-learning/

 How to Help Kids Overcome Fear of Failure –

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_help_kids_overcome_fear_of_failure

How Teachers Can Help Students Who Fail in Class to Succeed at Life

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_teachers_can_help_students_who_fail_in_class_to_succeed_at_life