December 10, 2016

Quote of the Week

"Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing. - Denis Waitley

Making Friends With Failure

Failure is an inevitable part of life, but it's often accompanied by shame -- most people do everything in their power to avoid it. But to paraphrase educational philosopher John Dewey, a true thinker learns as much from failures as from successes. What if educators worked to take some of the sting (and the stigma) out of failing, and encouraged reflection and revision to build upon the lessons learned? Perhaps there's a gold mine of opportunities if we can re-frame failure as a valuable learning experience, an essential step along the path to discovery and innovation. High school student Jack Andraka was rejected by 199 professors before one agrees to let him explore his idea for a solution to fight pancreatic cancer in the lab. Check out this brief 3-minute video about Jack's journey to help start the conversation about embracing failure.

Reading Corner

Title: Happiness Doesn't Come from Headstands
By: Tamara Levitt
Ages: 4-8

Why? "Trying—and failing—can be a path to happiness too.  Leela loves to do yoga. She could do all sorts of poses, but there was one pose she couldn’t do. Every time Leela tried to do a headstand…KERPLUNK!

This book explores the themes of acceptance, resilience, and self-compassion and offers the message that just because we may experience a failure does not mean that we are a failure. Written as a counterpoint to the message of The Little Engine that Could, Happiness Doesn’t Come from Headstands is a story about a girl who tries her best, but still falls down. Through the process she learns that happiness is not determined by external achievement. Even in the face of failure, peace can be found if we accept that we cannot do everything and focus on our experience." - Publishers

Be the Change

Failure can be a very difficult emotion to experience for an adult, let alone a child. This week try turning daily moments or chores into failure games. You could also have conversations around what failure means to you as an individual, adult or child, and share it with your kids/family. 'What was our opportunity to grow in a moment of failure' could be a great question to hold this week as a family.