“Mistake” by Sergei Chuyko. Unsplash
Failure is a word nobody wants to hear regarding their own work. A person that fails didn’t try hard enough or is lazy. In the book Bad Ideas About Writing, Allison D. Carr speaks about how failure is seen in a bad light, when in reality it’s a stepping stone on the path to success. In her essay, “Failure Is Not an Option”, she speaks about how failure is “a reset button for the brain”. Finding out what doesn’t work is a way to learn. Math scholar Manu Kapur agrees with D. Carr. In his essay, “Productive Failure in Learning Math”, he states that we naturally fail when trying something new.
Carr states that the stigma about failures started centuries ago. In the 19th century literacy became a necessity for all of society, and not just the wealthy. The school system was created and reading, and writing were subjects that were taught. According to Carr, eventually literacy became a way to divide “the worthy poor from the unworthy” (Carr). Carr states that “…success and failure in this realm came to be perceived not simply as an indication of intelligence or economic advantage, but as a matter of moral fiber” (Carr). In other words, a person’s worth began to be determined by the level of their intellect. This caused people to obsess over success, and not see the learning opportunities failure brings.
Carr states that when trying to perfect a skill, you’ll likely have many failures before you achieve even one success. She says that success is centered around failure, and that is especially true in writing. Carr says that writing is a process, and not an easy one. She states that when you try to avoid failure and refuse to take risks, you withhold your creativity. Carr is a writer and has determined that success in writing comes after years of failure. Carr says that nobody is born with exceptional writing skills, and that it takes time and repeated failure to have a good writing ability.
Cognitive researcher Manu Kapur has a similar take to what Carr states. In his essay, “Productive Failure in Math”, he states that people learn from their mistakes and failures. Kapur states, “…we seem to learn better from our own failed solutions than those of others…” (Kupar). In his essay, Kapur speaks about two experiments he performed to gain a better insight on how useful failure is in learning. The first was a controlled experiment with two groups. The first group of students were taught a method, and then told to solve a problem. The second group of students attempted to solve the problem before being taught the method. Kapur found that students who attempted to solve the problem on their own first showed greater conceptual understanding. In his second study, he had students attempt to learn from the failed problem of the first group. Although they performed better than the students who were taught the method first, they still didn’t do better than the ones that attempted to solve the problem before being taught.
“Mental Health” by designer491. Unsplash
The group of students that failed at solving the problem before being taught outperformed every other group. Kapur calls this productive failure. “Productive failure students, in spite of reporting greater mental effort than DI students, significantly outperformed DI students on conceptual understanding and transfer without compromising procedural knowledge” (Kapur). Kapur is stating that the students who were left to their own devices performed better than those who were taught. This shows that failure is a learning tool, and that productive failure can help students learn. Kapur believes that we naturally fail before we succeed, and he states that our brains are made to function that way. Kapur’s better idea is for people to acknowledge that failure is natural.
In conclusion, Carr and Kapur both believe that failure is natural, and sometimes unavoidable. Both state that failure is beneficial. They both have the same belief but showcase it differently. Regardless, both have the idea that failure shouldn’t be so taboo, and that it should be more acceptable in the school system. Writing shouldn’t strictly have a pass or fail system; we should think about how to make our writing flow, and sound creative. Being overly worried about how writing will look in the eyes of others makes the writing predictable. Failure should be appreciated because without it, success wouldn’t exist.
Works Cited
Carr, Allison “Failure is Not an Option.” Bad Ideas About Writing, edited by Cheryl E Ball and Drew M Loewe, West Virginia University Libraries, 2017, 76-81.
“Productive Failure in Learning Math.” Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal, by Manu Kapur, Cognitive Science, Inc, 2014, pp. 1-16