Thoughts on Failure…

” Failure is not an Option”

“FAIL, First Attempt In Learning”

You’ve probably seen this video circulating recently…Best Motivational Video Ever

Go ahead take a few minutes and watch that one, its quite good and help makes my point.

 

 

I think we have been looking at the quote “Failure is not an option” as a negative, when really failure is a necessary step to being  successful.   All of the people mentioned in the video failed before they did something great.  Even one hit wonders fail many times before achieving success.

What’s this have to do with schools and teaching?   I think schools and teachers need to allow their students to fail more often and recognize that failure is an important step towards to success.   Now I don’t mean let students fail by giving up on them, but allow them to try new things, make mistakes when practicing  (grading homework and not allowing students to retake tests when they’ve worked to learn the material, come to mind here).  Schools need to allow teachers to fail as well.  Without failure there will be no innovation and in this world of doing more with less, innovation is going to be absolutely critical.

What do you think?

Have you ever found success before failure  (looking success up in the dictionary doesn’t count!)?

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