7A Its Okay to Fail

Working at the YMCA for over two years has really opened my eyes to how children react in certain situations. Everyday after school, I would report to Highland Elementary school and play games and activities with children grades 1-6th. I was assigned to be the head counselor of the first graders, and I learned quickly that to them losing was very devastating. Two kids in my group had a very difficult time dealing with losing whenever we played a game, their names were Patrick and Martin and they were identical twins. Whenever we would play a simple game of tag and one of them got out, they would erupt into tears and would become very angry. It was extremely difficult to calm both of them down when they got out at the same time. Looking back to those times when Patrick and Martin would get out in a game reflects that they thought they  weren’t good enough and that they have failed.

Children, especially in elementary school are terrified of failure. Teachers and parents frown upon the word because in our society failure is negative. At a young age children begin to learn that failing isn’t good and if they ever do fail, they will get in trouble. Children learn this through school by the grading process that is usually introduced in third or fourth grade. Students are graded on their work and effort by the letters A, B, C, D and F which we all knows stands for failing. Receiving an F on an assignment or a course reflects bad on the student. Even though school doesn’t support failing, many teachers are willing to help students who begin to fall behind with extra help and support to get them where they need to be. School can be a safe place where students can fail but learn from those mistakes through teachers and guidance counselors.

Failure is a very controversial word. Many who have failed in the past had found themselves learning from their mistakes and then becoming successful later on in life. JK Rowling, the famous author of the Harry Potter series announces a time that she had failed at a commencement speech at Harvard University. Though JK Rowling admits she failed right after college, she learned from her mistakes and that made her the person who she is today, the author of a very important and power series in popular culture. Though failure is looked at by a negative characteristic, it can be beneficial in the end. Failure is part of human nature, where we learn and adapt to things that go as planned. Without failure, everyone would be perfect and no one would be able to learn from their mistakes. If JK Rowling didn’t fail, she would have never became a successful novelist.

The act of failure should be taught and discussed to young school age children. Elementary students especially should know that failing is part of life and it is a way of learning from your mistakes. If Patrick and Martin knew at the time that everyone fails sometimes and it is a way to learn from your mistakes they probably wouldn’t have gotten as upset. They would’ve taken it as an opportunity to learn how to get better at a game that they got out in. As a counselor of those two boys, I tried my hardest to explain to them that losing and failing is part of who we are, it happens to everyone and you just need to embrace it and move on.