Failure is the key to success
This is the eighth in a series of posts explaining the Acton Academy Principles of Education.
Education Principle #8: Failure is the key to success
I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
- Michael Jordan
Failure and being wrong is how you learn. Being wrong forces you to learn, to understand the correct way to do things, to not make the same mistakes over and over. To succeed, you have to understand failure.
In the extremely well researched and regarded The Talent Code, author Daniel Coyle details how we succeed and how talent is grown. He talks about failures not as setbacks, but rather as a path forward. Failures are wonderful because they set you up for future success!
Unfortunately, this is not how our school system works. Failure and being wrong is not looked upon as a positive. We have grades and GPAs. An "A" is good. For some, anything less is frowned upon. I remember my 8th grade math teacher was genuinely and visibly disappointed in me when I got a B on my first test. He expected me to do better and his tone and look towards me was demoralizing and something that did not serve me well. From that moment, I was scared to do poorly and I tried to learn shortcuts and tricks rather than truly learn the proper way. I wanted to succeed in his eyes and I didn’t understand that what was important was for me to learn.
“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”
The problem here, of course, is grades are a game. You can choose to take classes that are easy (as I did in college). Or even more basic, you can study for short term memory by cramming (as I did in my 8th grade math class after the first exam). It works but you'll forget everything very quickly. What value did it serve except that you apparently "succeeded"?
This is what happens when we reward our students for grades and GPAs. They behave to get good grades and GPAs, as would be expected. What they don't focus on is learning, getting better and picking up life skills. Why would they - that's not what they're rewarded for.
Author Seth Godin states it in another way:
The rule is simple: The person who fails the most will win. If I fail more than you do, I will win. Because in order to keep failing, you've got to be good enough to keep playing.
So, if you fail cataclysmically and never play again, you only fail once. But if you are always there shipping, putting your work into the world, creating and starting things, you will learn endless things.
You will learn to see more accurately, you will learn the difference between a good idea and a bad idea and, most of all, you will keep producing.
At Acton Academy Columbus, there are no grades, no GPAs, no tests. This is because such arbitrary scores invite behavior that is not conducive to learning.
Further Recommended Reading: The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle