The most important lesson a teacher can teach a child: Learning from failure.

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The question of what should be taught to a child may vary from culture to culture. However, one skill stands out amongst all, that is the ability to learn from failure. None of us are born perfect without any shortcomings, I remember being bad at everything, I was not good academically nor in sports.

I was so bad with my studies that when I went back to visit my teacher, I was told, repeatedly throughout our 2-hour conversation that he did not expect me to be where I am today. Looking back, it was through failure that lessons can be learnt.

The ability to learn from failure does not mean failing and just failing, there is an art to failing, after many years of teaching, the significance of failure is indeed great. However, it is important to know exactly how to use failure to one's advantage. In it, there are a few stages that children go through. It is through identifying these stages and from there, help the children find meaning in such failure. This is important because the lesson that failure brings can be quickly mitigated with how society sees failure. Handled poorly, it can cause the child to be unwilling to try out new things which may impede learning in the long run.

The loss

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This is often the first stage of failure. The loss is the stage where the failure occurs and it normally involves some kind of loss. This may encompass a loss of confidence, a loss of a prize or loss of any kind. In this situation, the teacher's role is important and it can make or break the child. I remember growing up, I am normally met with anger and disappointment whenever I fail. This has made me overly cautious in trying out anything outside of my comfort zone.

I noticed the same response in most of my students. Whenever they fail, there will be this brief moment of pause where they would stare at the teacher, waiting for the teacher to unleash his or her fury at the child. However, I noticed that switching the focus from failure to the positive aspects of the failure does help. I remember telling a child who received a D for an exam paper that I was very proud of him. He was very confused after my statement. I explained that it was not the results that mattered but the improvement. I projected that if he were to continue what he was doing, he would be getting an A very soon.

That led him to the next stage.

The climb

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Just like that song from Miley Cyrus, it is indeed true for anyone deciding to make the climb be it in their studies, work or sports. The problem with the climb is that you have to want it. Or else, it is literally an uphill battle for the teacher. I started wanting to do better because I wanted to. I knew that the bad results meant that there was a lesson to be learnt and that has led me to improve. I learnt this when I was representing my school in the state level swimming tournaments. Winning the medals was fun, but the main prize was qualifying for the national level tournaments.

It was not easy, it required many hours of training, but I could choose to drop out any time. I chose to be put through the dieting, the grueling training and the pain. I understand that my students have to face similar challenges as well and as their teacher, all I can do is to encourage them when they falter and push them until they have finally succeeded. I had a student who had a fear of putting his head into the water. It took much encouragement and motivation to help the student be willing to even try, powering through the discomfort to success.

The key here is to encourage the child to be willing to try and to 'climb' through all the challenges faced. Once the child has succeeded, the next step serves as a continuation to the child's learning journey.

The push forward

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I would normally tell the child at this point that I am proud of his/her success. I will tell the child that it was through the willingness to try, to strive that has led her/him to success. I would then suggest other areas in which this success can be built upon. While this may sound very ambitious, it is not, learning is a life-long journey. Thus, failure will likely be part of it, and if the child is willing to strive, no matter how fast the world changes, no matter the challenge, they will be able to rise above it. That is because at this point, it is likely that they will not give up on the first sign of failure and would strive towards success.

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