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1. Hip Liz Says:
   July 21st, 2005 at 12:48 pm

   Easy to criticize, but there’s a kernel of wisdom in it. I presume they’re talking young students, many of whom come from households where “you failed” is too common a message. I think removing some of the negative weight until they develop decent scholarly habits is a good idea. Obviously, you have to have real failure as a consequence by the time they grow into teenagers. But too many youngsters (and unhappy adults) are failures because they were told they failed time and time again under circumstances that they specifically were unable to fix, until failure became a habit.

2. Administrator Says:
   July 21st, 2005 at 1:07 pm

   I understand your point, but I disagree. I think that children should be taught to expect failure as a natural consequence of taking chances and as natural stepping stones to ultimate success. Failure is a *good* thing — a component of success — and children should be taught early how to deal with it.

   I give a lecture on occasion that discusses about how virtually every major success I have had in life has derived directly from what seemed to be a catastrophic failure. People need to look at failure and decide if they have to change their habits, train to increase their abilities, or change their direction to stop doing something they are bad at and start doing something that they are good at and will love better. Having people continue down a road of unachievement and mediocrity on the basis of a lie is not a good thing, and teaching children to lie to themselves is even worse.

   The world needs a little less self-deception, not training in how to do it better.

3. Hip Liz Says:
   July 26th, 2005 at 7:21 pm

   Yes, failure as a natural consequence of taking chances as opposed to failure as a natural consequence of being who you are. Children need to learn that early. Many teachers can pull this off – not all.

4. Administrator Says:
   July 26th, 2005 at 8:21 pm

   That’s a big problem. Frankly, that’s one of the reasons I am a fan of home schooling and private schools. Public schools seem to be particularly bad at it. They process kids in a “one size fits all” mode, and are more concerned with social engineering than individual growth. It’s easier to make them think that they are doing well when they are not than it is to give them the tools to really succeed.

   My pastor recently gave a eulogy for an older cousin of his. One of his favorite stories was when he was very young and wanted to be a baseball player but was profoundly uncoordinated. One time when a ball literally hit him on the top of the head, she took him aside and said “Roger, if you are this bad at something, you really ought to think about doing something else.” He became a theologian, and a well-known one at that.

   The same thing happened to me. When I was a young tyke, I was going to be a professional trumpet player. I was living near San Francisco at the time (in Danville), and our jazz ensemble played in bars all over the bay area. But I really wasn’t good enough to be a successful pro — and certainly not at jazz. Eventually, someone convinced me to go into medicine instead. It was tough to take a hard look in the mirror and recognize that fantasy and reality are not the same.

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