Failure is not an option?

Talking to a recent Masters degree graduate she mentioned that she knew she wasn't very good at writing academic theory. I wanted to explore this statement in this article as I did with my mentee at the time. Firstly I asked how her tutors had been at university and what feedback they had given her. As I suspected this was cursory and what should have been rectified and electrified at the time by her tutors wasn't. So this was the first hurdle and the first failure by those advising her on how to proceed with her academic theory writing. The other grey area with some tutors is that they do not offer enough explanation or ensure that the student is fully conversant with what they are saying. Again this can be cursory and in some worst case scenarios arrogant and flippant. In this experience we have the worst teacher that you do not want to meet when your learning and career at the time depends on it. To offer some anecdotal evidence to this article I was very lucky at university with my tutor and I received a merit for my theoretical paper produced for my masters dissertation. This was down to the fact that my tutor was brilliant and I have him to thank for that progression and that result. His feedback in tutorials was effective and detailed and there was enough discussion and analysis both ways to conclude that I understood what was required. Further to this the detail in his annotations on my work was enough to rectify any errors within the standards and thus allow me to advance my academic writing to the level required. To add further he went the extra mile by even offering feedback to me on my work when travelling through Italy on a train at a crucial time when I needed the feedback. From this standpoint it allowed me to go away and write a paper that was scientifically valuable and that could stand the tests required, it also gave me the confidence to submit what was a really good piece. Tutors that fail to offer this rigour in their work and feedback offer the student a less than average chance of coming out of university with something worth anything.

I pointed out to my mentee that it wasn't you that couldn't write an academic paper with any merit it was your previous tutors. Whatever skills, knowledge or the fact that they had been possibly just lazy predicted that you as a student would fail to make a higher grade. Now if a learners journey is based on this algorithm then it is worth noting that whatever is predicted at university at this stage can also be a catalyst for future developments by the student concerned. This can be a psychological disadvantage or advantage, the fact that psychologically my mentee was left with the thought that 'I know' I am not very good at this is a by product of her tutor who clearly wasn't very good at their job. This is nothing new and we have many longitudinal studies to show that this is the case in education, I would cite Willis (1978) as the most obvious study. The translation of failure for the person is then something that they have to fix later on so we are essentially storing up problems for everyone in the future. I myself worked in poor deprived schools in a large city around 2004 and I was tasked with dealing with hard to reach kids and to help improve their achievement. This I did by offering the kids concerned a positive not a negative experience as that is all they had ever received at school.

So in my first project one of the group got an 'A star' the holy grail of school results. Their work was meritorious and not merely awarded so there was justification of the mark within the group as the best and most outstanding piece produced. The impact on the group was phenomenal and work standards improved overnight, this impacted on wider participation by the kids in the school and teachers in the staff room reported to me that so and so had improved in his Maths and English tasks, what did I do? When all the group passed their GCSE's with flying colours the LEA who had contracted me to work with the schools asked me to provide a report of my methods used. I said to them that I didn't really need to offer that report as is could be very simply explained, I raised their 'self esteem'. Two words predicted the outcome, two words that predicted the kids future. If you look at most gifted and talented people they are so because of good teachers and or good schools. One of them being my father in law who achieved one of the first, first class honours degrees in Physics in the UK. I remember sitting with him in a restaurant when he was approached by a former student from his school who clearly adored him and praised him for the education she received. At the time she pointed out that if it wasn't for him she wouldn't be in the position she was in today. Even when he was taking ill with cancer when we met the doctors treating him, he had taught some of them and they all praised him to high heaven. Such is the impact of great teachers who work hard in their profession and the downside of not so great teachers is the opposite side of that coin.

If we look at the successful government ministers in the UK as an example all have one thing in common the fact that failure is not an option as good teachers have seen to this and they are a result of that good mentoring and education. A very well taught and educated government minister even though they have proven to be wrong and in public will argue their case in a way that supports their position. This is all based upon their previous teaching, their ability to succeed and gain meritorious awards and to be raised to an extent that they are in some respect brilliant. If you juxtapose this with someone who has had the opposite teaching and life experiences you will see a very different handling of failure and in a lot of cases admittance that that failure was down to them. Most people that have always succeeded in everything they do very rarely admit defeat, this can be annoying when we come across various politicians never admitting defeat but they are a by product of the system and teaching they have received, this has pushed them forward to greatness. I will leave you with a statement offered to me by a head teacher working in a poor deprived city area as it is quite apt, "When working class kids from these areas find the way of achieving things for themselves within the education system, government policy comes along and knocks them down again". Failure in all cases should not be an option success should be the only product we produce as that is progress.