Why have so many people accepted the idea that kids need to fail more?
Is it important to allow students to fail in class — or not to fail? How much should teachers allow kids to struggle before helping them solve a problem or understand a concept? These may seem like simple questions, but the answers are complex.
Last year, for example, a Texas high school teacher wrote in this post that she has a large quote on the wall above the whiteboard that says, “In this class, failure is not an option. It’s a requirement.” Her piece was part of a series of essays that emerged from a project in which more than 20 biology teachers across the country addressed this question: “What is the value of letting students struggle in class?” She wrote:
As my students started to learn that first day, I have this quote hanging in my classroom, not because I have a desire to see any of my students fail the class, but as a constant reminder of the powerful learning that occurs when people have to (or are given the opportunity to) struggle through challenging material and fail a few times along the way.
In 2014, veteran California teacher Larry Ferlazzo had a different take, writing that there is a big difference between failing and making mistakes and that it is important for teachers to help students understand the difference. He said:
Failure for a student, I would suggest, is the experience of not making progress towards their key hopes and dreams. One of the many jobs we teachers have, then, is to help them see that challenges they might face are just mistakes, which the dictionary defines as “an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgmentWhy have so many people accepted the idea that kids need to fail more? - The Washington Post:
