Failure’s Role in the Learning Process

Today in America, there is a large negative stigma around the act of failing. We spend every moment of every day making sure we do things “right,” avoiding failure at all cost. And it makes sense. Nobody wants to fail, and let’s face it, nobody really wants to be wrong. But are we shortchanging ourselves by not allowing for failure, and are we shortchanging our kids to teach them in school that “failing” is unacceptable?

In 2010, Diana Laufenberg gave a TEDX talk titled, “How to learn? From mistakes.” In it, she made the indisputable point that asking kids to always have the right answer doesn’t allow them to learn. In her own words:

“We deal right now in the educational landscape with an infatuation with the culture of one right answer that can be properly bubbled on the average multiple choice test. I am here to share with you, it is not learning.” 

In the video, Diana describes activities and lessons she experimented with to foster learning through creativity and allowing for mistakes. Watch the TEDX talk below.