While receiving my secondary education degree, I read countless articles and listened to numerous lectures detailing educational theories meant to provide children with the tools they need to succeed. One theory I never heard about was the fear of failure; however, I am starting to believe that this is the equation some children may need in order to inspire current and future generations to reach above and beyond their expectations.
It’s hard to use my personal account in determining the road map for how public education should be handled. I had no learning disabilities. I was physically healthy, had a great home life, English was my first and only language, and I had no problem adapting socially to the different personalities of school life. I know that for others individual education, they may had/have more challenges: learning disabilities, broken homes, language barriers, low self esteems, etc. However, I believe that in many instances personal challenges should be used as a catalyst for one to succeed. The option for not succeeding is to fail. The fear of failure should not be swept under the rug; rather, it should be embraced and used as motivation for a generation that is consumed with too much political correctness, public safety nets, and nanny-state laws.
While living near Santa Barbara, California, I had the wonderful opportunity of befriending my neighbor, Constantine. Constantine was born in northern Indiana to Greek parents. During many Greek barbecues Constantine hosted, I had the pleasure of meeting George. George was born and raised in Greece until the age of 16. He then moved to Michigan to live with an uncle. Nowadays, schools are forced to spend millions of dollars to cater to students like George and help them deal with the language and cultural barriers that they experience. These programs are referred to as ESL (English as a second language). These programs are a challenge for schools to fund. Qualified teachers are hard to find and teachers are burdened with paper work and meetings dealing with the requirements that go along with ESL learning programs.
One inexpensive program we could use would be the one George’s uncle used: adapt, ASAP! George told me that he remembers going to school in fear of not catching up to the learning curve. His uncle required him to not speak Greek while at home and the school had no program to assist him in his new surroundings. George did not want to fail, and this fear led to him quickly catching up to the kids around him. Now he is a successful bilingual mechanical engineer who still loves and embraces his Greek culture while he enjoys the freedom and opportunity of his American lifestyle.
I’m not saying that the fear of failure would work for every child’s education; however, I do believe we need to study and teach the postive results that can come from fearing negative consequences.
