How often do you find yourself allowing the fear of failure to hold you back in your life? Are you brave enough? Brave enough to put yourself out there, brave enough to try new things, brave enough to commit to a goal or challenge (even if you may fail)? If you can be brave enough to feel the fear, but do it anyway.... life can become so much more exciting and rewarding.
Our children are not only expected to constantly place themselves in these types of situations, but are required to be in this situation on a daily basis. New learning is part of their daily school lives and extra- curricular activities. If we take a moment to really think about this, it is no wonder that they may be feeling anxiety, stress or pressure. As adults, we have more choice about when, where and how we will allow ourselves to feel vulnerable. If we are honest with ourselves, we probably avoid these situations more than we realise.
Teaching children to have a growth mindset is so important. It can also be very helpful to teach children that failure can be seen as a positive experience. It means you are being brave enough, to be bad at something new. There are many examples of people who have failed initially and have used these failures to become very successful.
J.K. Rowling is one such example. Once she had completed her first story about a boy named Harry Potter, she wanted to share it with the world. She took her book to the best publishers across England. All of them rejected her novel. She did not give up on her dream, and after a year of continued effort to get published, she finally realised her dream.
Albert Einstein 'was a poor student, and some of his teachers thought he might be retarded (mentally handicapped); he was unable to speak fluently (with ease and grace) at age nine.' Albert didn't actually manage to finish Hight School as he was expelled from school due to his bad attitude negatively affecting his classmates.
I view tutoring as so much more than merely helping children to master skills and concepts in Literacy and Numeracy. I often find myself in the position where I am teaching BIG LIFE LESSONS. One of these lessons is to help children embrace fear, embrace challenges and to be brave enough to be bad at something new. This is not always easy, not always pleasant and sometimes results in tears and feelings of frustration. However, the joy on their faces when they prove to themselves that they can succeed, makes it all worth it! The feeling of empowerment is palpable and is so much more valuable than the actual skill learnt!
Comentários