The Fear of Failure

    The fear of failure is beginning to control todays society. Many see it as a positive, because it causes people to work harder to prevent themselves from failing...but this concept is wrong. Without failure, how do you really learn what true success is? Without failure how do you appreciate success and its worth?

    As a current student, weirdly enough, failure is one of my good friends. The more I fail, the more I realize that I have room to grow. If I were to never fail, I would have no want or need to try harder. And without the want or need to try harder, I wouldn't push myself. Just because you aren't "failing" doesn't mean that you are succeeding. To succeed, you must fail. And to fear the stepping stone to success is just illogical.
    I've also put thought into how this would come into play as I begin my career as a teacher. And my stance stands strong. Failure is a teacher and one must learn from it. If I expect my students to learn from their teacher, then I must learn from mine. Failure is a good teacher... it doesn't just tell you what you've done wrong, but also shows you what you can do right from now on. I hope people don't take this teacher for granted. When I embark on my career, I plan on showing my kids that failure isn't something to be afraid of...because it has all the right intentions. Failure is purposeful and exists to make life easier. It isn't there to be bothersome but instead, to help you see what you did wrong so you don't trouble yourself and repeat it.   
    Many students believe that a bad grade indicates failure, but I disagree with this as well. A bad grade doesn't indicate failure, it indicates that the student doesn't fully understand the topic or that they didn't have time to finish it, or maybe even that the teacher didn't teach to his or her ability...but it doesn't indicate failure from the student. To say that a bad grade indicates failure would be to call all of my students failures. Everyone gets a bad grade every now and then and it has no reflection on their level of success. 
    Many students also believe that their grades indicate their knowledge. This in certain circumstances can be true, but very rarely. The grading system is simply the easiest and most effective way to evaluate a students progress at the moment. It can not gage a students intelligence. Intelligence is a concept that is far too broad to be held down by a grading system. "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."    
    And lastly I want to touch on criticism. Criticism can be used as the sticks and stones or it can be just what someone needs. The key is to keep it constructive. If criticism is used for the pure purpose of critiquing then it isn't needed. Sure, it's a good tool to learn how to take criticism such as this and to not let it effect you...but if one has to purposefully block out or strategically take in criticism so they don't get hurt, then is isn't useful and I would advise to against using it.

 Failure shouldn't be feared. It should be viewed as a friend. "Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement" - C. S. Lewis

 

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