Educators Urged to Allow Their Students to Fail

Success is not as easy as it appears to be on first glance, according to noted author Malcolm Gladwell who gave a thought provoking keynote Sunday evening at the National Education Computing Conference in Washington, D.C. before a capacity crowd.

Gladwell, author of the New York Times best sellers the Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, addressed several thousand teachers about what learning really looks like.

"What you get [in education] is a simple function of what you put in. That is the beautiful and powerful idea behind learning... Sometimes the struggle to learn something is where the actual learning lies," he said.

Gladwell used the example of the well known rock band Fleetwood Mac saying that it took them ten years and sixteen album failures before they produced their masterpiece Rumours. In the years before their success, they had a rocky path that included losing their founder Peter Green for a few years before he rejoined the group.

"When we look at people who tend to master something, we have a tendency to telescope how long that took place. We underestimate how much time or energy it takes," Gladwell said.

When we examine the history of people who have mastered a field, we will see that on average it takes about four hours per day for ten years or what Gladwell calls the 10,000 mile rule. He gave an example of the Beatles who had played together 1200 times before they experienced success when they came to America.

So how does this relate to learning and the classroom in the 21st century? It shows that success comes with hard work, according to Gladwell. Few people succeed without hardwork. He gave another example of the KIPP schools that has one of the highest student success rates in the country with low income students. "Those students go to school 60% more than their counterparts. Their motto is "Success is hard work," he said.

Gladwell stressed that one of the things we need to change in the schools is the attitude that success comes easily. Students need to know that to succeed they need to work hard.

He is right about that. In today's world, many students in the U.S. schools aren't taught to work hard. The complain about the homework load; or they complain that the teacher wasn't clear and they can't do the homework. They don't think to figure it out themselves. In fact, schools today are worried that the students are too stressed and make adjustments. There is a trend to dumb down the curriculum so that everyone can "succeed." Schools are looking to eliminate laning or tracking of students.

Another of Gladwell's points was that people who fail but don't give up are actually better able to build on their failures. They learn how to work hard in pursuit of a goal.

In fact, he said, in compensating for a failure students are really just learning how to be better. They try harder and come up with new pathways because inherent in failure is feedback...the feedback of why you didn't succeed.

He talked about the dyslexic student who has to work very hard to get to the same point as the average student. He learns that he can't do it the way everyone else does it, but if he really wants to learn, he figures out alternative methods and in doing so he learns many other useful skills.

They learn leadership skills because they needed a group of peers around them to help them; they learn how to delegate; they learn how to problem solve and they usually perfect oral communication skills. "Their dyslexia turned out to be an an advantage, they learned how to compensate effectively."

In fact, there are many famous dyslexics who are heads of companies now--- Richard Branson, Henry Ford, Charles Schwab, just to name a few.

They never gave up trying.

Gladwell gave another example of the paradox of small class sizes. Studies are inconclusive when it comes to the importance of small class size. In fact, the students who score best on international tests come from countries where class sizes are huge--China and Japan. He hypothesized that perhaps being in large class sizes encourages students to be more self-reliant. Perhaps they are helping each other

"Perhaps here in America we don't give out kids an opportunity to flex their compensation muscle," he said. We are afraid of failure, but it is through failure that students learn. Perhaps we should change our assessment system to allow students to make mistakes without the stigma of failure.

Failure allows for feedback and for modifications. In each instance of failure we learn, but if we refuse to try again, we are lost. Persistence and hard work are the keys, he said.

He ended commenting on an upcoming panel discussion entitled "Bricks and Mortar Schools are Detrimental to the Future of Education."

Gladwell said, "Whether it is bricks and mortar doesn't matter; what matters is how the learning takes place, not where the learning takes place." The applause he got indicated that most teachers thought he was right.

For up to date blogging on the NECC conference, go to http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/

Comments

[GardenerNorCal]

A good way to turn off a struggling student is to ramp up the system that rewards only success. How many times have you ever heard a teacher say something like "I am so glad Johnny blew that answer because it gives me the chance to explain why he got it wrong"? I never heard anything like that. I only remember seeing all the grades posted so that the whole class knew how badly you did. That was real inspiring.

And I am not clear on the purpose of homework. Is it because teachers can't cover everything in the time they have? Is it way to insist kids think about a subject on their own time? Kids that are excited about subjects read and study about it on their own time anyway.

[larmarch5]

What's all the nattering about homework. The article/speech is about working hard. I agree. My 27-year-old stepdaughter has never worked a 40-hour week in her life, has never finished a project, takes one community college class onece in a while, took three trade school courses, trades one boyfriend for another or back and forth every few months. Mooches off everyone she meets. Now she wants to move back in with us a "go to a different community college to become an X-ray tech. Her dad has always treated her like she's fragile and never expected anything from her other than to be happy. Oh poop.

[rlugbill]

The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac did not succeed because someone made them do homework every night. They were passionate about what they were doing and it came from the heart, not from some teacher giving them good grades for giving up their only free time. They willingly devoted themselves to creating great works of beauty for others to enjoy. That is the opposite of homework, where you are forced to do something against your will that has no beauty and no one will ever enjoy.

Homework does not help learning, except that it helps children to learn to hate learning. Read "The Homework Myth" for more info. on this:

http://www.amazon.com/Homework-Myth-Alfie-Kohn/dp/0738210854

[been2there]

Homework is the academic equivalent of tackling practice. The difference is that while I do not have to be on the football team, I do need academic skills. If I am lucky, I will enjoy learning these skills; if not, I am out of luck, BECAUSE I STILL NEED THEM.

[usmcflir]

The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac did homework everyday, that is what practice is. You are correct that no one made them do it, it was their choice, but their homework was graded by fans and critics. They learned from the grades they got (criticism) and improved their performances until the graders (consumers/fans) were satisfied with the outcome.

[rlugbill]

Yes, it is important to teach children early on that they need to bring their work home, depriving them of family time, and have them do mindless make-work exercises during their only "free time". Homework keeps them busy so they don't have time to think or play or spend time with their families or ask questions like "why do we have to do so much homework?".

Because when they grow up their lives will be like this. Working late, bringing work home, little family time. Little time for other pursuits other than contributing to the corporate bottom line.

Yes, hard work is important- to the large corporations who will be employing these children. So, we had better prepare them for this reality. Schools should be in the business of producing good employees to do mindless work and not ask any questions.

[CitizenRob]

This assumes that the hard workers we turn out won't be guided by their own desires and hearts as adults.

[demockracy]

There's a tendency to celebrate the lottery winners (the famous dyslexics, for example), and ignore the millions of losers in the "hard work conquers all" sweepstakes. The truth is that Gladwell's books tout both hard work and talent. He's debunking the idea that talent alone is enough.

As for the problem with U.S. schools particularly -- they notoriously focus heavily on college-bound kids, and ignore avenues for success for the non-academ­ic-incline­d. We still need technicians, workers and others besides the vastly overrated college educated. (George W. Bush had an MBA. I rest my case.)

The Germans have a school system with non-academic alternatives, apprenticeship programs, etc. The Americans' way seems to be to de-fund the schools, promote tests (NCLB) that demonstrate their failure, and then de-fund them some more.

Of course paying for good schools would mean more of those "job-killer" taxes. I say let's have the literacy and infrastructure of low-tax Borneo and see how many jobs we create.

[singlemalt]

Yes, and because the Germans have a school system with non-academic alternatives it comes as no surprise that they fare better in the testing arena. I mean, if the US--and thank God we don't do this--separated the academic all stars from the rest of the school kids, I'm betting our tests scores would be quite high. Testing is not always a good barometer of long-term success.

[been2there]

We must stress mastery of skills rather than test scores, and we must be willing to put in the time and effort to test well.

[jcwtts1]

Tests are a fraction of what is necessary for good learning.

[been2there]

Very true. Tests are, however, what gets looked at, so they need to be valid. If the tests are more valid, the learning can afford to be better.

[OkieMon]

kids have so much homework these days because actual learning does not take place in the classroom anymore...­.classroom­s are now open discussion/play areas supposedly led by the "facilitator" (not called "teacher" anymore) where kids' minds just drift away to whatever....bring back the traditional classromm (kids sit in THEIR seats, keep their mouthis shut, and pay attention to the "teacher" at the blackboard who "teachers") all from the first grade on....

[singlemalt]

All I can say is the school that my kids attend--and it's a public school--there is plenty of learning going on in the classroom, and still, there is way too much homework. There are no "facilitators" at the school. We have great teachers. It's the overemphasis on test scores--and, let's not forget, the number of standardized tests they have to take. This isn't about a lack of hard work. We're raising test-takers, not life-long learners.

[singlemalt]

My daughters bring home so much homework it makes my head spin. They stay up until all hours of the night studying and don't get nearly enough sleep. American children are losing out on their childhhood and that's a crime. We're raising a generation of stressed-out robots and that's something we should not be proud of.

[DahliaZ]

Very interesting article and glad to see this issue is getting notice. I've thought for a while the biggest failure of public schools in past couple decades is their inability to give students a safe place to fail: to teach them sometimes you just need to try harder before you succeed, and sometimes you're trying to succeed in an area that just isn't for you.

You hear all the time from employers that the younguns coming up have a huge sense of entitlement, unrealistic expectations on the time it will take to advance and terrible writing skills.

Our public schools are a disaster. It's no wonder home schooling as increasing exponentially. If I had kids and could not afford private school, I wouldn't let the public system near them.

[zaneblue]

All I can say is I've got a math degree from an Ivy League school, and I didn't have a third of the homework my girls bring home every day from elementary school. Maybe that's just Massachusetts, but at least here I don't think working harder is the answer.

[marxmarv]

It is the answer if your goal is to teach them to suffer long uncompensated hours gladly.

[been2there]

I work with college students in remedial classes. American schools tend to try to find fast and easy ways, not so much to learn, but to measure learning. Learning is labor intensive, but so is measuring learning. The true/false, multiple guess questions on standard tests discourage higher order thinking. The whole "teacher is responsible for student learning" meme ignores the reality that teachers can only teach. If students refuse to work, it is the student's fault, not the teacher's. Since teachers will be blamed, they are forced to try to cram low level facts into student minds to pass tests. The result is dismal.

[martiniandabotoxchaser]

You mentioned students being willing to take chances and fail...you obviously have not attempted to get into a top college or obtain a scholarship in the last few years. If a student takes a chance and fails it will be reflected in their grades. With so many "perfect" students, any student who has a blemish on their record or a minor deficit will be rejected. Don't blame the many hard working, industrious students, blame a college system which created the rules of the game.

[Hoelder]

I whole heatedly disagree. Balderdash! It is not about hard work as much as it is about teaching the right skills and subjects. Unfortunately, schools have become the supply chain for cheap labor for corporate America. School system start cramming facts into first graders that their experience cannot process yet. It is really not about hard work or not. It is about teaching students to learn on their own, to develop a liking to stretch their minds. Unfortunately, with all their extra tests to prep them for the next bigger test, there is not much time left for creativity. That is what corporate America and the style of corporate schools do not like. Some school districts call the superintendent already CEO. Hard work for the wrong reason is as effective as the teachers in the class room. But you get what you pay for, and measures like prop 13 in California did not help children and school district s. The Germans work maybe 370 hours less then Americans, but they have a better school system and they are also the export world champion in front of China and the US. That was a real bad comparison. Hard work stands often for lots of overtime, for neglect of the family, for little play time for children which is unarguably very important. It is not the quantity of time, it is the quality of concentration. You totally missed the boat, the ship, the mega vessel.

[been2there]

Hard work is a skill.

[TJCole]

If hard work had anything to do with making money, Coal Miners would all be millionaires...!

[Zofomofo]

LOL! Totally, we still suffer from that Protestant work ethic BS.
Shouldn't the motto be "Work Smart?"

Look we all understand the idea that when you do something great it involves dedication etc. But this primitive "Work Hard" mantra is just plain dumb.

Working hard at something you have no interest or fascination in will always be painful and rarely productive. Plus like you said there are examples for ever of hard working people who get zip and positioned, elites who constantly win. (Successful people usually, conveniently forget all of the luck that goes in to their success.)

We should teach students to find fascination in their lives. Besides no one learns by being told something. We learn by example. The examples in this world are not good.

[maddocbrown]

Brilliantly put.

[larmarch5]

Well, financial wealth is too often seen as an indicator of success. Hard working coal miners are worth of admiration as well as hard working moguls.

[GardenerNorCal]

How many times do you see those hard working coal miners on the cover of any magazines or interviewed on tv? Soon they won't even have jobs that's how worthy of admiration they have been held.

[blindjester]

Interesting discussion. I like it, and agree with it overall. Hard work for hours each day for months out of the year for many years is what it takes to succeed in school.

What is unusual about what he says is the emphasis on what the *student* does, as opposed to the teacher.

In most discussions, teachers are blamed out of hand for low average achievement scores (when compared to other countries). Even my favorite progressives do that. Ed Schultz is a notable exception to that disturbing trend.

They forget that Asian students overachieve here, too, which suggests that student effort or attitude or aptitude or culture has a role to play. (The same is true with Bosnian students, among others.)

Anyway, thanks for sharing his comments with us.