Failure by Holland

Failure by Holland - January 2015 Scholarship Essay

Teaching is perhaps one of the most intriguing fields of work available. These individuals dedicate their lives to shaping students into more intelligent, curious, and determined beings in only a short amount of time. However, their hard work often goes unnoticed and is frequently under appreciated. I cannot pretend to know how arduous the work of a teacher really is, but I do feel as though as a student of many years I could offer some useful advice.

Failure is important. I am sure there are many people in the education world that just scoffed having read that statement, but it had to be said. Before I reached the collegiate world, I had no idea what academic failure was, and more importantly, I had no idea how to handle it when it inevitably came. My whole world came crashing down, accompanied by all of my other course grades. Although I eventually picked up the pieces and got myself back on track, it took a lot of effort. It was not until I graduated college and began a graduate program that I realized how important it was that I had experienced and overcome academic failure. In the intense program that I am currently in, I have seen many of my fellow classmates fail for the first time in their lives. In a high stakes graduate program like this, there is no time to be having a world class melt down. The skill set necessary for not only handling failure, but also for turning it into something educational and positive needs to be in place prior to entering such a high stakes environment. Therefore, teachers, here is what I would like to say to you. Let your students fail. Do not give into their pleas for you to reward extra points on missed questions, but instead let them fail. Let them learn what failure is and how to handle it, teach them how to benefit and learn from their mistakes rather having a meltdown. Let your students become familiar with failure when it is deserved, and watch how they will grow into strong, intelligent, and capable beings.