“Failure is not an option” – Gene Krantz (Chief Flight Director during the Apollo 13 crisis)
“You must accept that you might fail: then, if you do your best and still don’t win, at least you can be satisfied that you’ve tried. If you don’t accept failure as a possibility, you don’t set high goals, you don’t branch out, you don’t try – you don’t take the risk.” Roslyn Carter
At first glance, these two quotes seem to be saying opposite things. No one likes to fail. No one likes to lose. But, in truth, we all fail all the time. For educators, we know that the process of learning is the active engagement in working toward successive approximations of what is true. We practice at something that we do not know how to do, gradually getting closer to the acquisition of that skill or collection of knowledge. Once we acquire the new skill with the degree of proficiency we desire, learning has stopped.
Reflective Questions:
What do you think? Do you agree with the paragraph above?
What was the best ‘failure’ you have ever had?
Name one thing worse than failing.