In the September 19, 2011 education issue of The New York Times Magazine, I was pleasantly surprised to read several articles that identified seemingly counterintuitive ideas about how to prepare students for success. “What if the Secret to Success is Failure?” by Paul Toughy, was about two educators, one independent school head and one charter school leader, who had identified failure as an important ingredient in defining a student’s character. Another story, called “My Family’s Experiment in Extreme Schooling,” by Clifford Levy describes his family’s experience when, as a foreign correspondent in Russia, he and his spouse decided to place their three young children in a local school, where they didn’t know the language and inevitably had to sink or swim. In both articles, a strong theme came through: that in order to bring out the full potential of our children, we must teach them resilience.
Easier said than done. As parents, we have a particularly difficult time seeing our children disappointed, not to mention experiencing significant hardship or failure. Let’s all admit to this. More than once in our parenting lives we have made decisions for our children, acting out of their well-being, only to see that decision ebb away when they negotiate for an alternative option, usually with pleas and tears. It is so hard to see our children unhappy or feeling unsuccessful. None of us want that.
Yet, what if difficult experiences are exactly what’s needed for our children to be successful in the future? Researchers, psychologists, and educational leaders have been saying exactly this for some time. Well-known examples abound that may back up this idea, including the story of Michael Jordan’s having been cut from his high school basketball team, to more common (yet no less impressive) stories of young people who have beaten all odds to become the first in their families to achieve a college degree. Setbacks—even failure—build a person’s resilience, which is a necessary trait to achieving success.
At Prospect Sierra, we believe in cultivating resilience, even in our safe school environment. Especially in grades K-8, we adults should allow students to take risks and try out many new things as they develop self-confidence. As parents we should consider wisely when to step in when our children experience a setback. If we solve their problems, we take away the opportunity for our children to recognize their own strength, intelligence, and problem-solving abilities. It is by building resilience that they gain real self-confidence, not simply self-esteem.
Next Tuesday, October 11, the faculty and staff will return early from our fall holiday to participate in an all-day, all-school professional development retreat on 21st century curriculum. Continuing a comprehensive process that we started in February 2010, the faculty will reflect on the 21st century skills that they defined last year and integrate those skills into their programs. Embedded in our views about 21st century skills is the idea that failure is an opportunity to innovate and solve problems in new ways.
Also related to our 21st century skills work, the faculty and staff have been deeply engaged in a series of professional development workshops, which began in fall 2010, led by our in-house diversity and inclusion teaching team: Britt Anderson (MS Librarian and Director of Diversity/Inclusion), Suzette Duncan (6th grade), and Madeleine Rogin (Kindergarten). These three trained educators have focused on teaching the faculty and staff about cross-cultural communication, also a key 21st century skill. We invite you to learn more about this process at the upcoming interactive, informative, and fun workshop they will lead for parents at the PSPA-PM meeting in the Avis Library.
In both articles referenced above, the students who were successful mastered cross-cultural adaptation and resilience, two essential competencies that the faculty and staff at Prospect Sierra cultivate in our students. If you’re interested in reading more, please go to the links above, and tell me what you think!