Failure
is just a resting place. It is an
opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
Henry Ford
What
we teach our students about failure is what we believe about failure. In pursuing a goal, there are many certainties
and one of them is that we will fail at least once along the way. When we begin the process of working with our
students on new concepts, do we teach them that failures are necessary for
success? Many times, failures help you appreciate the success that is sure to
follow.
This
lesson is learned the hard way by many students because they don’t
realize that in order to appreciate any success, they must respect the process. One essential aspect of that process is the emphasis
placed on continuing when failure ensues.
When
a student fails at a math problem, it simply means that he or she has missed a
step along the way. When a student is not
successful on a test, it doesn’t mean that the student
will never be successful at anything, it simply means the student needs more opportunities
to succeed.
Henry
Ford asks that you allow failure to be a stop on the road, a “resting
place,”
but not a destination. Failure is never
a destination that we want for our students, but if we don’t
teach them how to continue moving towards success, they will surely make failure
their home.
What
we teach our students about failure is just as important as what we teach them
about success. These two experiences are
one in the same. As we begin to cultivate learners, let us remember that many
of our best stops along the road, our most important “resting
places”
were failures. However, those were only “resting
places”,
not our final destinations.
