The Scoop on Failure
How hard is it to avoid failure? I would say it is basically impossible. I can only think of one way of avoiding failure, and that would be not trying at all. And not trying is the equivalent to failing. So why do so many people view failure as an end to all means as if it is unavoidable. The standard of the human life has become so based upon our peers and acceptance that we fail to see the values of failure. Instead often people become disappointed when faced with adversity and failure. Failure sparks inspiration and creativity, while people try to avoid failure their entire life in actuality it should be almost pursued. Pursuing failure would allow people to spend more of their life learning and less of it regretting.
In Agreement: Another Look
An author that shares similar aspects of my opinion while also adding in their own flavor is Allison D. Carr. She talks about her thoughts in her excerpt “Failure Is Not an Option” included in the book Bad Ideas About Writing. Carr speaks on how she also feels as if “[f]ailure should be welcomed” in order to expose oneself to new opportunities (76). She describes the importance of failure in writing as “integral” to the process of success (76). Carr is stressing the need for resilience and perseverance when faced with failure. The realization of many greater ideas have blossomed because of failure and the toughness to fight through it. “[F]ailure is a significant part of the entire scene of learning,” when learning how to do anything there is a high possibility that the first time you are going to do it wrong (79). For some this may spark the fear of repeated failure in the mind therefore shutting down any chances of possible success leaving an idea unfinished. This is a fear that some would blame households for or traumatic experiences, but this blame can also be place on the education system. Thankfully, Carr and I are not the only people who feel failure shaming in education and society is something that needs to be denounced.
Inner City Research: Kids Who Need It Most
Ingfei Chen has found and wrote an article on an actual experiment based around the concept of failure acceptance. The article “New Research: Students Benefit from Learning That Intelligence Is Not Fixed”, which can be found on PBS NPR, talks about Stanford researches and their discoveries on the adolescent mind when exposed to positive feedback on failure. The survey exposed inner city kids to 30-minute interval sessions of video clips, and simplistic motivational phrases such as, “If you make a mistake, it’s an opportunity to get smarter!” (Chen). These methods actually provided positive output from the students. A short 30-minute session sparked inspiration in the children showing a 14% average increase in half the students GPA by the end of the semester. Honestly it is shocking to see that even just exposing kids to the “growth-mindset” for 30 minutes showed astonishing results. Even though half the children were not affected by the video maybe it was too late for them. It makes me wonder if promoting this mindset from youth could have a larger impact on students test results and stress levels even on a national scale.
From East To West
Katrina Schwartz talks about a Berkeley, California middle school teacher and her efforts to encourage failure, in her PBS article, “A Grading Strategy That Puts the Focus on Learning From Mistakes”. Katrina explains the no grading strategy used and created by Leah Alcala a middle school math teacher. Leah does not grade her students papers she simply highlights the mistakes and hands the paper back with one chance at a retake. By doing this she is trying to show her students “how powerful it can be to study their mistakes”. Katrina also touches on the struggles that Leah’s students encountered initially including motivation and understanding but an overall positive reaction from the students showed that thing could be done to inspire learning. These efforts will hopefully help an education system lead astray “refocus class on learning instead of on grades” while also reducing stress on students to succeed. I can personally vouch for this method because my Spanish teacher uses this exact same method for test in his class and the students appreciate it.
Start With YOU
Authors like Carr, Chen, and Schwartz are just some of many more authors and people that understand how much learning from mistakes can benefit our future. These authors chose to fight from the roots which is implicating these methods through the youth. This is not the only set of people that can benefit through learning from failure anyone who is facing adversity should adhere to this rule. Don’t allow yourself to be stunted by your failures analyze and improve on them then reapply them to your life. This is the key ingredient to succeeding while also being the hardest to obtain. But ability to persevere will never let you down.
Work Cited
Photo 1: https://www.powerofpositivity.com/10-things-to-learn-from-failure/
Photo 2: https://onlinelearningtips.com/2014/01/find-your-motivation-away-from-cliches/
Carr, Allison. “Failure Is Not An Option.” Bad Ideas About Writing, Digital Publishing Institute, 2017, pp. 76–81.
Chen, Ingfei. “New Research: Students Benefit from Learning That Intelligence Is Not Fixed.” KQED, Pbs, 9 Sept. 2015, www.kqed.org/mindshift/36603.
Schwartz, Katrina. “A Grading Strategy That Puts the Focus on Learning From Mistakes.” KQED, PBS, 16 Nov. 2018, www.kqed.org/mindshift/52456.