Failure 101

Mistakes As The Building Blocks Of Knowledge

John Lehrer’s book How We Decide discusses the fascinating concept of how emotions impact our decision making process. In his studies, he comes to see the value of failure as something that helps us learn. In the book, he describes how schools and teachers can better prepare their students.

“Instead of praising kids for trying hard, teachers praise them for their innate intelligence, like being smart… This type of encouragement actually backfires since it leads children to view mistakes as signs of stupidity, and not as the building blocks of knowledge. The regrettable outcome is that kids never learn how to learn.”

Failure, if used correctly, will end up being the best tool to train and teach our children.

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