The importance of the "f word"

For such a long time the idea of failure was almost a taboo thing to bring up or discuss. But that is not always the case and was dependent upon which culture or group I was teaching. I recall having so much negativity put on the word during the early part of my teaching career when the emphasis on student rights and welfare gained momentum. Essentially we took that word out of the dictionary ad allowed to our students to gain a whole new complexion and belief about the world they grew up in.

I think the first alternative view came when I first ventured out of Australia and into the wider world of education. I recall having a discussion with my principal after I had completed reports, the gist of which was "Every student has the right to fail". I contemplated this and saw that in some ways we were actually doing the student an injustice by not providing them with this option. I saw almost a whole generation of students ill-equipped to cope with adversity because we had taken it away from them. At the time, the "real world" did not mirror this point of view, and much to the consternation of students the driving test proved to be a fearsome challenge. Now obviously this is a good thing considering the option of allowing an untrained or unprepared driver to be in control of a car is a very scary thought. The number of students I saw brought to tears as they encountered the "f word" for the first time was amazing.

I think that the idea of failure was and still is taken out of context by too many. I know as a young person it was used in my schooling, and yes it was a painful pill to swallow whenever it was used. But, it was an impetus to look elsewhere for a solution. Failure is and never was the end, it simply told you that something didn't work, so find another way. I think this was lost in the over willingness to extend the perceived well-being above the learning. Like many other ideas , failure is a learned term, children don't know or understand it unless we teach it, and react and respond to it. Unfortunately, our collective (parents, teachers and society in general) reaction is the big negative and leads to the stigma that we try so hard to overcome! Our actions cause the stigma, not the fact that they could not do something the first time. Too often the idea that you tried is lost under this stigma that we put on the result! Failure is a consequence of a fixed mindset only seeing the end outcome. This causes stagnation in a child's willingness to try and accept challenges, they don't want to be labelled. A growth mindset will see it as an opportunity to learn - plan A didn't work so lets try plan B. I found the diagram on the left, that I'm sure most have seen,  at Belmont teach blog. I think they got it right, or at least closer to the truth than by simply ignoring it. Failure should be seen for what it is, a chance to build resilience strategies.

I think that the catalyst to again chase this idea out from under the dark corners of our psyche was an article on the Quartz site. The article centred on skills that CEOs seek in applicants and surprisingly (or maybe not so) the idea of accepting challenges and trying, and in some cases failing, proved to be a positive. So in essence, employers seek a growth mindset. The idea of failure can mean that you are trying to solve the problem, rather than simply waiting for a solution. The idea that we shouldn't try shows a distinct lack of initiative, and that other should be able to find the answer. The importance of trying to solve and seeing possibilities is surely of greater value to any institution or company that the willingness to do the opposite! As pointed out in the blog, life is not smooth and "ups and downs" part of the daily cycle that we all have to deal with.

I think the idea below that was posed in the article sums it up -

Parents are being reprimanded socially for engineering failure-free lives for their children, producing kids who lack the resilience to function in the ups and downs of daily life. “Young people today, in the US at least, haven’t failed very much,” Crandall says.