New Threats to Freedom – Freedom to Fail
Failure, a fundamental aspect of human innovation and ingenuity, is paramount in the neurological development of the brain and the education of millions of students throughout the world. Failure is essential to success, because without failure there is no possible way to measure/compare success.
Failure is critical to the education of humanity because it allows for students to 1) accept responsibility and understand errors that were made, and 2) develop the skills necessary to cultivate his/her scholastic areas of inferiority as well as superiority. These two aspects of failure are vital to developing a highly educated, innovative, and productive society. A student will never learn how continuously develop his/her unique talents, skills, and abilities if he/she never understands how critical, “failure” is to the experience of learning.
The primary basis for the current educational system of “learning” emphasizes concepts and theories based on studies conducted by Behaviorists Dr. Ivan Pavlov and Dr. B.F. Skinner. “Operant Conditioning” Pavlov (1890) – is a behavioral/learning method that utilizes pleasurable and adverse stimuli; to elicit a desired response by the Experimenter. When applied to the education system, Pavlovian Operant Conditioning is the basis for the grading system, and a schools graduate/failure rate. When a student is punished (adverse stimuli) for failure, however still advances through the school system (perceived social reward) – the conditioned response of the student is the feeling of reward based on a failure, WITHOUT critical the introspection vital to the learning and development process. B.F. Skinner theorized that “negative reinforcement” is the strengthening of behavior by strengthening the avoidance of some adverse stimuli. Skinners influence on teaching states – “failing to adapt learning tasks to the student’s current level” (The Technology of Teaching), and “failing to provide positive reinforcement frequently enough” (The Technology of Teaching) are critical factors in the education of students and the development of learning skills.
We can clearly see that education and behavior are contingent upon the negative and positive reinforcement students receive from educators is critical in how they learn the material presented to them. If students lose the freedom to fail, and to have the support they need to overcome that failure; they will never learn the material that is necessary to achieve their scholastic and career goals. When students are provided no positive reinforcement to learn from their mistakes, and yet are passed along the education system; the result is students turn out to be disinterested and apathetic, eventually becoming so discouraged they give up learning and personal development all together. Such a belief in learning will inevitably destroy human innovation, ingenuity, and creativity that are critical to a productive society. It is the responsibility for parents and teachers to emphasize the importance of learning from failure, to develop a learning system the gives students the freedom to fail, and provide the resources necessary to aid students in overcoming failure.
Because humans are able to experiment with their environment, they are prone to failure and success. Only when students are allowed the freedom to fail, then encouraged (with assistance from parents and teachers) to develop the necessary skills to overcome said failures can true learning begin.
- Weston L. Zink
No comments:
Post a Comment