As a college teacher I saw this a whole lot. Many of my students were not concerned with doing their best because they always got what they wanted regardless of their effort. They had what I call a “blinding acceptance of mediocrity”.
I think back on my life and can clearly remember times I failed. It seems to stay with you and help motivate you to better things.
Here is a good site about recovering from failure. Overcoming Failure
This is the article.
Helicopter parents not doing enough to let children fail
- THE belief that regular praise will improve the self-esteem of students has backfired, with educators urging over-anxious parents to let their children fail so they can learn from their mistakes.
- Rod Kefford, the headmaster of Barker College, has warned: ”We are creating a generation of very fearful learners and the quality of our intellectual life will suffer as a result.”
- in the 1960s, it was not uncommon for teachers to tell students bluntly that they had given a wrong answer.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Andrew I loved this post. In my school the principal has pushed to not allow anyone to fail a class. The minimum grade a teacher can give a student is a 50%. Regardless if he does the work but it's wrong or whether he or she turns in a paper that is completely blank, they will get a 50%. This allows the student to have a chance to pass.
ReplyDeleteI think that over time we have coddled students to where they now feel as if they are entitled to have a parachute for every misstep. My parents allowed me to make my own mistakes and never jumped in to save me. I had to learn from those mistakes and get back up.
I don't think we all need to be like Bobby Knight, but tough love is not a bad thing. Telling a student they are wrong is beneficial if you tell them why they are wrong. It is good for parents to care for their children, but making choices for them teaches them nothing.
Andrew, it is so interesting that you chose this article. Just before we dismissed our students for Easter vacation, a similar article circulated throughout the faculty. So many of the points were the same in the two articles that for a second, I thought it was the same article. I do believe that success comes with failure. Learning what was done incorrectly helps to solidify understanding, thus providing a chance for success the net time around.
ReplyDeleteRealizing that children must learn from their mistakes is a valuable lesson. We can not as parents and educators deprive them of that opportunity. Children have to be willing to take risks and realize at the end of the day it is not the grade they received that is important; it is the knowledge they will carry forever
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteI agree and disagree with this article. In our district, parent's play a minimal role in raising their children. I wouldn't say all parents, but we struggle to get parents involved in their child's education. I think we need to learn when to step back and when to intercept in our child's life, but monitor it closely, non-the-less. If we don't give them wings, when will they learn to fly?!
Thanks for the great article. I always like seeing your posts!
Andrew I could not agree with you more. I really feel those who fail are those who can be the most successful. Our students today live in an immediate gratification society, and much of the time they can get what they need instantly. I think due to this fact one of the things students struggle with is the timing and dedication they must put into many assignments they need to work on. Much like the instant success of posting a photo on facebook, our students want that same result when they learn. I think it something we need to learn to over come and work with when it comes to our students. Just as they are capable of turning out average work just to get by, when we challenge them they are able to turn out amazing work!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this. It reminds me of the schools that stop having spelling bees because not everyone can succeed. If these students were given the opportunity to learn from their misspelled word, they would be spelling it correct today. Instead, this generation of little bobby can't do anything wrong and we should congratulate him for trying, is in complete shock when they find out they failed something in real life.
ReplyDeleteI know that I sound over the edge about making kids fail, I'm not. I just believe that there needs to be a happy medium for students to succeed.
Chapter 3 in our book, The Art of Possibility, was about giving A's. I believe this was geared more for creative arts and general life. It isn't saying that you should always give students an A for trying, but the students need to be encouraged and see where they can go and how much they can achieve. They have to be encouraged to learn new things and expand their thoughts.
@ Andrew - I loved your saying, "A blinding acceptance of mediocrity." My own way of characterizing the same phenomenon was to call it a "stunning lack of curiosity."
ReplyDeleteI noticed that the new graduates being hired didn't wonder about anything or share my amazement at the capacities of the human body or human spirit. After a couple of years of this, I think it is starting to turn around. I have noticed more of the nurses entering my classroom are getting excited about learning again...or maybe I'm just teaching better.
I posted the following in Jacquelyn's blog, when she wrote about failure in education:
ReplyDelete"I used to ask my 6th graders about what it was like the first time they played basketball, were they any good at it? They universally say no. Then I asked them if they had a little brother, sister or cousin around who was learning how to walk and whether they fell more than walked. And they'd universally say yes. So why should any expect learning something new, like how to spell words or write good paragraphs, why do we expect to do that perfectly the first time when every other thing we've learned how to do was mostly about falling down and then getting back up dozens or hundreds of times before getting it at all right? They'd agree but they still didn't want to do anything that they were good at. Ugh."