More Thoughts on Making Mistakes

When I was in University, we often discussed “hot topics” in education. Back then I discussed school choice, year-round schooling, and special education. Today, we continue to talk about special education (including class composition and support for learners with special needs). We also talk about teacher working conditions, funding for public education, public vs private education, differentiated instruction, social and emotional learning, to name but a few.

My hot topic has become the importance of making mistakes, and overcoming  the fear of making mistakes.

I have no scientific data to back this up, but there seems to be a rise in the number pf families who share that their child suffers from anxiety. Children as young as 5 years-old are reported to have significant levels of anxiety related to learning and school attendance. Students in grade 5 are reluctant to do 2 digit subtraction in front of anyone because they might get it wrong. Grade 7 students want to hide their art because it doesn’t look like a picture (if I wanted a picture, I would have used a camera).

This is shocking to me, but should I be shocked?

Our culture puts down mistakes. We demonize the football player who drops the ball, or the goalie who lets a puck in. We laugh at someone (through Facebook or you tube) who tries something and is not the best. I won’t go into how those “newspapers” at the grocery store checkout line make fun of people for having human bodies (imaging, not looking perfect in a bikini), but this could be a good topic too.

So, what do I want to do about it. Let’s CELEBRATE MISTAKES.

I’m not talking about mistakes like, “I didn’t mean to hit him with the rock.” or “I am sorry I used a swear word.”

I mean, celebrate the math mistake by figuring out why a child got the subtraction question wrong (Did she forget to borrow from the tens?”).

Celebrate our mistakes, and own our mistakes. Model for our children that mistakes are part of life, and that we can use them for our benefit.

Celebrate mistakes that occurred after a child makes an effort to try something new. Imaging learning guitar without expecting any mistakes.

Celebrate mistakes by providing gentle feedback that leads a child to learning how to do something better.

I have heard about how we have to avoid doing things that cause children anxiety. I am not sure that is the right route to go. I think, with proper support, we show children to face their anxiety, and help them see that things are not as bleak as they think.

Once again, I looked to TED Talks for some inspiration on this topic, and I found a video of Diana Laufenberg ~ How to learn? From Mistakes. Key quotes from her lecture include:

“Allowing children to fail as part of the learning process.” (at around 6:08 of the video);

“Leaning has to include an amount of failure, because failure is instructional.” (around 8:20 of the video)

Let’s help children learn to accept mistakes as part of learning.

Take crae. 🙂