Teacherscribe's Teaching Thought #28

Teaching Thought #28

Here is an interesting take on the Ten Things Teachers Should Unlearn, this one instead looks at what  Parents Should Unlearn.

Third, Children need to be protected from any kind of failure.

We cannot insulate our kids/students from failure.  If there is one thing wrong with Gen Z, it’s that they have been far too sheltered and have a melt-down whenever they get criticized or called out.  One of my favorite titles is Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones by John Maxwell. If I could, I’d buy a copy for every single parent of every single student.  Another great title from Maxwell that goes well with this is his Sometimes You Win – Sometimes You Learn: Life’s Greatest Lessons are Gained From our Losses.

Anyone who is successful at anything knows failure is vital.  I just don’t get why we try to bubble wrap our kids from it.

So try to build in non-fatal chances in your classes for kids to fail.  One of the most demanding things my College Comp class does is their final 8-12 page research paper where they have to read two novels and then compare three themes the novels share.  There is a very specific way I want the paper structured, especially the supporting paragraphs analyzing each theme.  Before they do that, though, I build in several chances for them to write supporting paragraphs in the precise format I want based off several short stories we read prior to their novels.  This is all done as practice for their final product.  In fact, I am hoping they fail early on in these paragraphs, for this is where I can do some of my best teaching.  When they fail here, it’s for low stakes as opposed to never mastering the supporting paragraph format and failing their final research paper.