Rethinking Failure, Part III: Failure and Success

 
 

As an independent educator, I give a lot of thought to what I'm teaching my students, tacitly and explicitly, about failure and success. Inevitably, I can't think about failure and success without also thinking about how fear influences both things in my student's lives--not to mention my own. 

I wonder, am I unwittingly teaching my students to be driven by fear when it comes to learning? Do they know how to appropriately view failure, so they can expect it and use it to move them forward? Are they fearing failure in the right things or the wrong things? Do they understand the concept of their own genius? Am I spending most of my time teaching in line with their unique genius, so that when they fail, they're quicker to pick themselves up and brush themselves off because it's something they're utterly fascinated with--and because they're so fascinated, there isn't even a place in their brain for quitting on learning? 

I am afraid sometimes we teach that educational success looks like denying our genius and spending all our energy and time in school working to master the thing in which we are least gifted and not meant to do. And if we do that, people tend to see us as having achieved the apex of self-discipline--yet a bit of martyr syndrome often creeps in as well. Is this really success?

Personally, I'm more interested in genius than martyrdom, and I'd be willing to bet that you are, too. 

What if, because students are so afraid of not getting an A, they fail to fear the very thing at which they should fear failing: learning itself and the brave exercise of their unique genius?

Comments

[Jim]

This fear stuff is tough in our personal lives. It is easy to say don't fear, just charge, but fear isn't always bad. When I was mountain biking yesterday, there moments when I felt a little fear, and it was a good thing since I hit the brakes and made sure there was no chance I'd go for an unplanned swim in the river. Our challenge seems to be to recognize when our fear is just our own resistance holding us back, and when fear is a genuine healthy thing protecting us. If we confuse these two, we can fail to live our true life, or we can hurt ourselves (financially, psychologically, even physically) by not protecting ourselves. Fear is a biggie, and I like the way you're thinking about it.