Failure, and the fear of failure,
is a complex force. From my own personal
experiences and the experiences shared by others, I consider failing two sides
to the same coin: An experience with
failure can serve as an important step in the learning process – after all, if
at first you don’t succeed…try, try again!
On the other hand, failure can be a debilitating experience that is
difficult to recover from. In this post I will explore this paradox of failure in general terms and in relation to
education.
“You
got to lose to know how to win”
-
Dream On, Aerosmith
Consider
Michael Jordan: Cut from the Varsity
basketball team as a sophomore in high school.
Did he let this experience with failure end his basketball career? Nope.
He eventually became a star player at the professional level in the
NBA. Although this is an overused
example, it shows that nobody is immune to failure (yes…even famous people!)
and highlights the fact that failure does not have to define a person.
Everybody
at some point in their life is going to encounter experiences with
failure. As an educator, I have a unique
perspective on observing failure within the school system and in individual
students’ lives. In terms of academics,
I told my students on the first day of class that they would make mistakes as
we maneuver through uncharted mathematical territory learning about new
concepts; the important part of making a mistake is trying to fix it so it
doesn’t happen again. As Tough states in his article, “What If the Secret to Success is Failure?”, it is “…O.K. for there to be a challenge, because that’s
where learning happens” (2011, pg. 8). With
perseverance, diligence, and effort, students can overcome challenges in
learning – even big challenges as demonstrated in Mitra’s Gateshead
Experiment he shared in a TED talk (2010). (If you haven't viewed it, WATCH IT…truly remarkable!) Tough supports an
educational setting based on students taking chances and learning without a
safety net in order for success to emerge from failure. I can incorporate his suggestions into my
teaching practices by providing students with opportunities to engage in
accessible, yet demanding mathematical tasks and problem solving experiences.
On
the flip side of the coin, failure can cause a person to “shut down.” I have two stories to share that demonstrate
this phenomenon. A friend of mine went
through a divorce over a decade ago. His
failed marriage impacted the way he has come to view relationships, marriage,
and love; he says he will never marry again.
In the classroom, I have had students tell me, “I’m stupid. I can’t do this.” or “I’m not good at
math. I give up.” Students often provide two reasons for this
thinking: 1. The student had a failing experience in math
before (on homework, quiz/test, or an entire course). 2. The
fear of failing. (It is my job as a
teacher to harness this failure and turn it into a positive learning experience
for the student. I desperately try to promote confidence in my students that they CAN do math! I anticipate that this will continue to be one of my main challenges as a math teacher throughout my career.)
The debilitating side of failure can limit a person’s opportunities,
whether that is hindering learning for students or diminishing the chances my
friend will make a committed connection to another person in the future.
These
two anecdotes provide examples of failure experienced on a personal level, but
failure also exists on an institutional level (as many of the suggested readings in Cycle One go into detail about). Whatever
the source of failure, I’ve come to the conclusion that failure is a part of
living life. I’ve experienced failure
before and I can guarantee I will experience failure again. Failure does not define a person; what
matters is HOW a person responds to failure.
Hi Amanda,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your work here! I enjoyed reading your post.
I agree that the greatest success can only come from risking (and probably tasting) the greatest failure. I also agree that students have to get comfortable at doing things on their own and that a good math classroom will teach students not to fear mistakes, but accept them, learn from them and prevent them from happening in the future.
But the far more powerful part of your post really was, for me, the divorced friend. That is the type of fear that is of the pit-in-your-stomach, hard-to-get-out-of-bed variety. Probably there is nothing that will ever happen in our classrooms that can match that.
Sometimes I think we urge people to move through failure too quickly. Like your friend. He has to dwell in it. Maybe forever. But maybe there will be that day where the reality of failure and having survived failure will allow the clouds to lift. He will see that he has faced the worst and that, in some ways, he has nothing to lose. Failure can allow us that freedom at some point. If we can somehow preserve our sense that we matter, that life matters, that our voice matters.
I think about the Ogbu article, for example. It's a tough read but really shows us how "success" can shift around for kids. If you are taught to distrust school, then doing bad on purpose is a way to succeed. You show that the school won't change who you are.
If you are taught that failure makes you a bad person, than not trying is another way to succeed. You preserve whatever of your dignity you have left. You didn't invest anything of yourself so there was no risk at the end of the day.
I'm sure you've seen the work on math-phobia. It is the single scariest subject in our school curriculum (that students would fear a textbook section on quadratic equations more than a book about the Holocaust is strange to me, but there you have it). Why? How many kids are just happy to get through another day in math class? How many view success as not having made a fool of themselves? I can tell you that there are tons of professors in the humanities who carry around the same fears every day of their lives. Isn't it interesting the role that math plays in our culture? I sometimes feel math class is a proxy for that other type of pit-in-your-stomach fear that I was talking about earlier. But where the heck does that come from?
Thanks for your post. If you have any further thoughts, I would love to hear them!!
Kyle
Thanks for your comments Kyle!
DeleteYou bring up another fantastic point when you said, "If you are taught that failure makes you a bad person, than not trying is another way to succeed." This statement personally resonates with me. I have chosen at times to air on the side of caution and not try something new in order to avoid a potentially failing experience. Sometimes I just need to dive right in! (I need to keep reminding myself of this!)
You bring up one of the biggest challenges I face as a math teacher - math phobia! So many people in our culture have a phobia of math that it is rather alarming! From talking with people and students of my own, I've discovered that the root of this fear is due to some previous failure. In math, there is one right answer. Some people really like this feature of math, others find it daunting to have to go from a given statement to a correct answer. Too many dead-end problem solving experiences can take its toll until eventually a person gets to the point where they just don't want to try anymore in order to avoid another failing experience. Interestingly, many stories that I've heard pin math phobia on a particular experience when a teacher (or someone else) made a person feel stupid for not getting the right answer. I try to counteract this by boosting student confidence in my classroom; however, I feel that sometimes the scars are too deep and the damage is done by the time I meet students at the high school level.
HI Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI was definitely one of the students in math class that you just described-- my favorite line was "I can't do this". I think I had it in my head that girls just weren't good at math, because that was a boy subject, and it didn't help that I had math teachers along the way that were extremely impatient and did things in front of the class to confirm the stereotype of math being a male subject. But I'll never forget my sophomore year of high school, I had a math teacher who was a female professional natural body builder-- she defied every gender stereotype there was in class. And while she encouraged every student in the class, she paid special attention to get through to the girls that they could be just as good at math as the boys, if not better. It really changed my relationship with math. It's amazing how a teacher taking the time to work with you and explain WHY there is no reason you can't achieve something, can change the total trajectory of your schooling.
I can attest to Kyle's point above that humanities teachers carry the same fear around. I teach History and while most people think that makes me a walking fact book of dates and leaders, that really isn't my thing-- I am big on telling history as a story and making it conceptual for kids. Multiple choice tests with dates just aren't going to help kids understand the reasons we go to war, etc. But inevitably I always have a kid or two who are obsessed with dates because of their conditioning to find those facts direly important, and that always scares me. What if I can't think of a date off the top of my head? What if they ask for a statistic I am not familiar with? It's scary!
Thanks for sharing!
Katelyn
I looked up a list of the top 110 phobias. Was surprised to see that math did not make that list! Although fear of failure is #12. (If you're interested, here's a link:http://www.saviodsilva.net/top-10-fears-phobias-ten-common.htm
DeleteI am so intrigued as to how the fear of math develops. Is it passed down in the family? (At parent-teacher conferences, I've had people tell me, "Johnny is not good at math because I was never good at math. I guess he just gets it from me.") Or is there a flashbulb experience that triggers this fear. I'm gad you eventually had a positive experience to combat your fear. I try to provide those positive experiences for my students so they can overcome their fear of math.
I can attest to your own experiences in the classroom. As teachers we are expected to know all the answers. In a way, I think it is good for our students to know that we don't always know the answers (yes, we are human!), but it can still be scary to not be able to answer a question and show our students a "flaw."