Michael Lawrence and Dr. Fabio D'Agostin | Creating Schools…

The excerpt below, from The Atlantic (and Jessica Lahey’s book, ‘The Gift of Failure‘) is an excellent example of how the narrow focus of the ‘High Impact Teaching Strategies’ which have become all-pervasive in Australian (and American schools it appears) schools is robbing students of the joy of learning and replacing it with a fear, a dread, of failure. 

When discussing this idea, I use the analogy of a student who wishes to learn the guitar as they have an interest in music and the instrument itself. As we are studying this at school, grades are all-important and our  ‘High Impact Teaching Strategies’ tell us to focus on the aspects of guitar which will be on the final examination. As a dedicated teacher, I have used my connections to discover that the practical examination focusses on the playing of the A and D chords, played in the Bossanova style so I ensure that all lessons and practice times are spent on these chords and not wasted on other chords or musical styles. 

After a few months of this, my student achieves an impressive grade in the examination.

As a teacher, I have successfully helped my student obtain a good grade, and she now has a certificate showing what she has achieved on the guitar. 

 However, she doesn’t play the guitar much any more as she grew tired of the A and D chords, and never really liked Bossanova music- she was a blues fan.

When Success Leads to Failure

The pressure to achieve academically is a crime against learning.

I’ve known the mother sitting in front of me at this parent-teacher conference for years, and we have been through a lot together. I have taught three of her children, and I like to think we’ve even become friends during our time together. She’s a conscientious mother who obviously loves her children with all of her heart. I’ve always been honest with her about their strengths and weaknesses, and I think she trusts me to tell her the truth. But when she hits me with the concern that’s been bothering her for a while, all I can do is nod, and stall for time.

“Marianna’s grades are fine; I’m not worried about that, but she just doesn’t seem to love learning anymore.”

Above all else, we taught her to fear failure. That fear is what has destroyed her love of learning.

She’s absolutely right. I’d noticed the same thing about her daughter over the previous two or three years I’d been her middle school English, Latin, and writing teacher, and I have an answer, right there on the tip of my tongue, for what has gone wrong. Yet I’m torn between my responsibility to help Marianna and the knowledge that what I have to say is a truth I’m not sure this mother is ready to hear.

The truth—for this parent and so many others—is this: Her child has sacrificed her natural curiosity and love of learning at the altar of achievement, and it’s our fault. Marianna’s parents, her teachers, society at large—we are all implicated in this crime against learning. From her first day of school, we pointed her toward that altar and trained her to measure her progress by means of points, scores, and awards. We taught Marianna that her potential is tied to her intellect, and that her intellect is more important than her character. We taught her to come home proudly bearing As, championship trophies, and college acceptances, and we inadvertently taught her that we don’t really care how she obtains them. We taught her to protect her academic and extracurricular perfection at all costs and that it’s better to quit when things get challenging rather than risk marring that perfect record. Above all else, we taught her to fear failure. That fear is what has destroyed her love of learning.

Continued in the link below:

https://amp-theatlantic-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/400925/