Learning To Fail... It's A Good Thing

A top girls' school is planning a "failure week" to teach pupils to embrace risk, build resilience and learn from their mistakes.

The emphasis will be on the value of having a go, rather than playing it safe and perhaps achieving less.

Pupils at Wimbledon High School will be asked how they feel when they fail.

The headmistress, Heather Hanbury, said she wanted to show "it is completely acceptable and completely normal not to succeed at times in life."

Ms Hanbury's pupils achieve some of the highest exam scores - but from Monday they will be invited to focus on failure.

There's a lot to be learned in failing.  It is inevitable when experimenting.  It is how boundaries are found and limits are established.  Failure is a part of life, and people who go out of their way to avoid it can shortchange themselves.  Learning how to deal with it and absorb all the necessary lessons will go further.  Fear of failure can be crippling, liberating people of that can set them free to dream big.

Perhaps nobody is as eloquent regarding failure as Thomas Edison.

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” 
― Thomas A. Edison

“Five percent of the people think; 
ten percent of the people think they think; 
and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.” 
― Thomas A. Edison

“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” 
― Thomas A. Edison

“We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work” 
― Thomas A. Edison

I really went in search of the first one, but the others seemed relevant enough to include.  We should not be afraid to fail, only of failing to learn our lessons from having done so.