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Growth, Grit and Failure

We have been learning about having a growth mindset, grit and why we need to fail in our Maker class this term.  The difference between someone who has a Growth Mindset vs a Fixed Mindset is seen when they fail at something.  A person with a Growth Mindset will look at that failure as an opportunity to learn and try to do better next time.  A person with a Fixed Mindset will give up at the first hurdle because they don’t believe that you can learn to be better.  Either you have it or you don’t so why bother trying again. Since we aren’t perfect, its better to have a Growth Mindset.

A big part of having a Growth Mindset is learning from failure. We looked at videos about why it’s not only OK to fail, but we need to fail in order to grow. This is a link to a video about failing that I really liked.

We made some sketch notes in class about our thoughts on these concepts:

Failing and learning from your failures develops grit. Grit is the ability to persevere even when things aren’t going well or are challenging. Like failing at something over and over again. This is something I know about first hand. I’m dyslexic. Very, very dyslexic. So dyslexic that when my Mom read the first report from my tutor at Kenneth Gordon School about all the different things that happen to words when I look at them, she couldn’t figure out how I could read anything at all. When I first came to Kenneth Gordon for Grade 4, I actually couldn’t read very much at all. Maybe like a Kindergarten level. I had to do a lot of programs to learn to read and I had to practice over & over. Little words that are everywhere, like the, a, and, or, I get mixed up & sometimes I can’t read them. In the beginning it would take me 30 minutes to read a single sentence. But I wanted to prove something, I wanted to keep going and keep trying. I didn’t want to be known as the dumb kid who couldn’t read. I was jealous and wanted to do what everyone else was doing. I wanted to read as badly as I wanted to breath. Which is why I like this video about grit so much:

When I got discouraged and felt like I could never learn to read, my tutor and teachers would insist that I could and would tell me to take a break and look at things in a different way. They would remind me of how far I’ve come. Failure isn’t failure, its an opportunity to learn and a chance to try something different. If you think you can’t, you are right; if you keep saying you can’t, no one can convince you otherwise, but if you keep trying, you get better. (This was something we talked about in class as well.) So when we did our assessment to get our “Grit Rating”, I wasn’t surprised that I scored a 4/5 (5 being extremely gritty, but not dirty). In fact, everyone at Kenneth Gordon was struggling and failing regularly at something. That school is full of growth and grit! Everyone who works there helps to train the students to have a growth mindset and develop grit. In fact, it’s even posted in the hallway. Here is a photo of the hall at Kenneth Gordon that was included on their Facebook page:

That is how I have learned the moto that I live by: I don’t lose. Either I win or I learn. Having a Growth Mindset is something that can be learned. If you want something badly enough, you can develop grit. And we should always strive to learn from our failures. It is how we move forward. Some people say to never look back but I prefer this quote from George Washington (we got to look up a bunch of great quotes during this course):

“We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.” – George Washington

I will close with our final project from our Growth, Grit and Failure exploration.