宽容对待学生课堂犯错 - 2015年02月02日

In many high school classrooms, complete silence is a common occurrence — particularly after a teacher asks a question. However, this phenomenon occurs not necessarily because students are clueless and unable to answer the question, but rather because they are afraid of answering.

Every student has endured the shamefaced moment of giving the incorrect answer. That is why, instead of openly speaking, many students only whisper the correct answer underneath their breaths.

However, despite this ever-present stigma of failure, I would like to assert that being wrong does not always equate ignorance, laziness, or uselessness.

When you make a mistake, you are not a failure or a moron. Risking a mistake is one way to help you understand your goals and work towards being the best version of yourself you can be. These payoffs don’t come without the chance of being wrong. In fact, being wrong is the driving force behind the path to self-improvement. Sometimes being wrong gives you room for change. It is part of what makes us human and thus gives us some of the most admirable qualities of humanity: empathy, courage, optimism, conviction, and most importantly, imagination.

When you have the imagination to envision all the things that you have the capacity to do in life and have the courage to live out that imagination, no matter how many times you fail, end up confused, or make the same mistake, persist and you will succeed.

There can be no success without failure, just as there can be no moving forward without changing the present. Your mistakes do not define who you are, but what you make of them do. So next time the teacher asks a question, be bold and take that chance — you have nothing to lose but everything to learn.