Failure IS an option

Ok, so I know this may sound weird, maybe a bit of a depressing topic, but I've had the word failure rattling around in my brain for a little bit now.  See, we have all heard the phrase, "Failure isn't an option."  But, actually it is an option, and it's not always a bad thing.  

The word failure has this negative stigma attached to it based upon our own life experiences.  According to Google, the definition of fail is a lack of success or the omission of expected or required action.  

I've spent some time finally deciding what I wanted our computer lab to represent, how it should look, what should go on the walls, and what I finally landed on were some ahhh-mazing posters created by a sweet lady, Shannon Long (@SweetBlessShan), and her site she writes on, "technology rocks. seriously."  She recently shared some posters she made in a Google drive here.  Many of them are inspirational in nature, designed to remind students and teachers to not give up and this is what lead me to start thinking of the word failure.  I know, strange connection, but that's how my brain works.  Anyways, we almost always, myself included, associate failure as a bad thing, but it can actually be good.  When faced with a new task, new program, new way of doing things, we will certainly face obstacles, failures if you will.  However in these obstacles, failures, difficulties, we discover within ourselves or by help new ways of doing things, better ways of doing things we were already doing, more efficient ways, etc.  We learn from those failures.  A true learner at heart will embrace those failures as opportunities to learn, not give up.  Too often I think we quit trying to learn something with a small hiccup, something didn't work right the 1st time, so why keep trying.  We lack that grit as Angela Ducksworth calls it.  When, as an adult, we model this in front of our students, or talk about this "giving up" in front of them, or complain about how we will never understand, learn, etc, then our students live this way too.  We need to model how to fail, how to overcome, how to have grit, and how to never give up!  It's in discussing these failures and how we overcame them that our students see them for what they are, "learning opportunities". 

I do believe that some failure is just as the saying says, and we have the obligation to NOT fail our students.  We must continually be learners at heart so we can adequately meet the needs of our students.  Each year is different, each class is different, each child is different and requires different things.  If we fail to learn, fail to try even, fail to overlook some things (not all things), or fail to seek out help when needed, then we are planning to fail.  Don't fail, but if you do, learn something from it, for our kiddos need someone who is an overcomer, willing to embrace failure, willing to move forward, willing to step out of their comfort zone and try.