John Holt, in his book How Children Fail, wrote that for many kids in school, the main questions they deal with are
‘Am I going to get this right? Probably not; what’ll happen to me when I get it wrong? Will the teacher get mad? Will the other kids laugh at me? Will my mother and father hear about it? Will they keep me back this year? Why am I so dumb?
Now, some of those questions aren’t as prominent as they were back in 1959 when he wrote them, but I think we’re kidding ourselves if we don’t think the essence of them still exists in the minds of many kids.
Can you feel the fear that underlies those questions? The anxiety? None of them are the kinds of questions that are closely aligned with learning.
These questions are ones that are asked when someone has no control over circumstance and consequence. They’re the kinds of questions that make the unknown a scary place.
The real failure.
We all are familiar with the cliche that mistakes are the worst thing you can make in school. It’s true, because mistakes slow things down, which often leads to failure, and failure is something schools are coded not to accept. The kids know it to be true, also, which is why so many of them so willingly bow to the control and structures for learning put in place.
It is in this that the real failure occurs. For in doing so, kids learn that compliance and replication are the easiest ways to success. They don’t learn to trust themselves.
But we mustn’t conflate the achievement that comes from this with learning.
“You get rushed through things and this means completion is the most important thing. Because of the rush, mistakes are bad things to make. The work has to be right first time, and this means the safe route is the best one.” (Year 12 student, in conversation July 2019).
I’m reminded here of Welby Ings’ observation that we want schools to be developing people who have the confidence to walk in worlds without a map. If a key part of learning is repetition, then repetitively being in contexts where things are mapped out, and kids feel “the safe route is the best one”, can’t help kids develop that confidence.
What can teachers do?
Give students control. Trust them. Allow them to play to their strengths. Don’t rush them. Listen to them. Place the emphasis on the process, not the product.
When you do, students will say things like this
“Before, I felt like a dumb rock. Now I feel intelligent. I felt stupid any time I sat down in a class. Now I know how to teach myself, now I feel more confident … Belief in myself has strengthened because the teachers care. They encourage. They care more than other teachers. Feel like a relative, looking over your shoulder. Care has a lot to do with learning.” (Year 12 student, in conversation October 2020).
Care? Don’t under-estimate the power of that feeling as a driver of learning. It breeds the sense of connectedness that is crucial in developing the confidence people need when facing things unknown.