failure is not an option

Each morning my wife disappears off to put in a full day at the office so it’s up to me to take care of our two-year-old son. As it’s just the two of us I have to keep my eyes on him and entertain him till around 9am at which time I take him off to his nursery school. It’s our “father-son” time and while at times he can be tough I treasure these precious moments. Watching him explore his world is really quite eye-opening. For him, everything around him is new. He is constantly trying to make sense of everything around him. There are times when he falls down, hurts himself and then two minutes later he’s back at it again. Failure is not an option at this age. Each day he sees opportunity around him, not limitations.

But somewhere along the line we seem to have forgotten that. For all the great things school teaches us, making mistakes isn’t one of them. But we learn more from our errors than our successes. Our errors actually reflect our thinking which is why I encourage my students at Smith’s 英会話 Hirakata not to worry about mistakes because it allows me to give them feedback and at the same time understand how their mind is constructing the sentences. Students who guess correctly might not actually realize what they have done therefore cannot replicate it. Therefore it’s a lot of hit-or-miss.

People often confuse failing with failure. Failing is short-term, it lets you know that you’re off track. You can still fix your mistakes. The only way we truly experience failure is when we give up completely.

So whether you’re a student or a teacher don’t be afraid of making mistakes. They make us human.

Adrian