In our lifes we often are told that we need to strive to do the best we can. But the message that we take from this is that we should avoid failures and always perform the best possible. This is not what is meant, at least we hope it isn’t. It is always great if you can give it your all to attempt to go without failures. The only reason we could try to avoid failures is because how other people perceive us. However the best way to learn something new is not from reading or hearing it, but from feeling how something doesn’t work.
Let’s take our body as an example. When we are young we are all being told how great working out is for us. But it is not when we have never worked out that we will feel the benefits. To feel them we need to challenge ourselves, to go for a run or to go to the gym. If you have never been serious about movement, you will feel bad the first weeks. After those difficult weeks you will feel the initial change. After a good amount of time you will continue to find new benefits to enjoy. This all comes after the failures of doing something new.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill
Growing up we get to see the benefits that success brings. But no one ever teaches us how that you only achieve success after failing. It is the courage to attempt something that we know has the chance, possibly a high chance, to fail. After failure we need to get back up and take another try at it.
We focus so much on the succes, on the wining part, that we forget to tell people how to get there. How can I get better points on my next exam? Study harder, pay more attention at class, do your homework better. We often forget to look at the environment of the child and how it feels. As teacher our parent we feel like we have been through all of it and have seen enough.
We can give them advise on how to do it better. But it is your child, your student, that needs to find it’s own path. We can guide them, we can give the tips on how to perform better. But it the end everyone is different. Perhaps you have always learned through much repetition and want to help your child to do the same. But maybe your child doesn’t need all the repetition. It could be enough to pay enough attention at school and then studying it intensely at home. From a “how to study” perspective this is not the most optimal method. However your child might be better off with it.