He who hesitates is lost but Act in haste, repent at leisure.
The pen is mightier than the sword but Actions speak louder than words.
We aren’t troubled by the tensions here; we recognise that each saying is a helpful distillation that can guide our actions at certain times. The trick of course, is which one to apply, and when; and for this there is no simple answer. Human behaviour cannot be simply reduced to rules of thumb – there is no escape from the need for personal or professional judgment. Of course, individuals might lean one way or another, depending on their context or backgrounds – an infantry solider and a poet might well take opposite positions on the second pair, for example.
I think we educators sometimes do not recognise this when talking to students and parents. In our absolutely correct emphasis on growth mindsets we can be in danger of overgeneralising about failure; failing is great! It stand for F.A.I.L – first attempt in learning. And similar things are wildly popular in business-speak too (30 Quotes on Failures). But these kind of sayings can cause students to roll their eyes and understandably cause parents to worry; and I do not see any familiar counterbalancing maxim to act in tension and form pairs like the sayings above:
Failure is just a first attempt in learning but…… ?????
What comes to my mind is failure is sometimes permanent. That’s not a commonplace saying these days – largely because it’s rarely true; but failing to recognise this counterweight in the educational world is a problem. It’s not so much that fail is only a first attempt in learning is wrong as it is incomplete. Multiple failures of all sorts are of course, inevitable unless you strip you life of all aspirations entirely (which is, I guess, already a terrible failure in its own right). And we know that people can recover from setback – as witnessed by the cliched examples of Einstein (told in school he would never amount to very much), Michael Jordan (cut from the HS basketball team), Oprah Winfrey demoted (as she wasn’t fit for television‘) and so on. But this is smoke and mirrors; these are the exceptional people and there are millions who did not recover from failure.
So why do I object to the phrase ‘Fail is just a first attempt in learning’;? Firstly, because there are times when failure is unacceptable (being the safety anchor for your partner rock-climbing? Getting your long hair too close to that dangerous machine?). But secondly and far more importantly, because even if it is true, is misses the emotional life of students and families. It may be possible to fail often without damaging high aspirations, but it’s not easy and Einstein as a role model is too high a bar for almost anyone. Moreover failure can hurt, emotionally – especially true for vulnerable teenagers who are still in the process of developing a strong sense of identity. So if we blindly insist that failure is OK we run of the risk of seeming unaware, unconcerned or unconnected to student reality.
I am not suggesting that we never offer students opportunities where success is not guaranteed; or never help students bounce back from disappointments with carefully structured support, feedback, intervention. Of course we should; and we do. But we need to recognise, and never simply deny the (perceived) impact of failure. We can then be in a position to discuss whether any particular failure really is permanent (the vast majority are not), or look at potential mitigations, or simply go ahead and take the risk. This approach means the conversations will move from the polarising binaries of failure and success to more open considerations about experimenting, tinkering, learning and improving over time. I am determined to make this a habit of mine; failure is not an option.
1 Response
Dear Nicholas,
You have definitely given me food for thought. I, too, am one who uses the maxim that failure is good and natural; that it is just one step toward ultimate success. I think we use the word failure, because it is a simple word and we like simplicity when explaining difficult ideas. Experimenting, tinkering, learning and improving: these are much more complicated than failing, but it is what we mean when we use the word failure.
Our words and language are so important in speaking with children. Thanks for this reminder; I will work on it.
Best regards,
Valerie