Do you feel the pressure of being perfect?
I think our society expects perfection. Somehow, we are expected to look perfect, to be perfect at the first try, to accomplish perfect results.
Mistakes are frowned upon and judged.
But is perfection possible without trials and errors? Dramatic pause to think about it 😊. At Project Be You, we believe that mistakes are the perfect way to get better. We like to encourage students to go out and try new things without worrying about the mistakes they may make along the way.
Making mistakes is a part of real life. In some instances, mistakes even lead to discoveries like Fireworks, Potato chips, Chocolate Chip Cookies, the Xray Machine, and Cheese, just to name a few.
On a serious note though, as parents, our initial instinct is to protect our children, even when it comes to protecting them from making their own mistakes. We tell them what to do, how to do it, and force a perfect standard, not allowing them the experience of learning from their mistakes. Or sometimes even worse, we insist on a do over. We as parents need to stop asking for second chances for our kids on assignments that received a poor grade. Let them take the bad grade. Let them study and work harder for the next exam or project and earn a better grade for themselves. We must allow our children the space for accountability, even when it’s not easy to do so. Acceptance, though, is key. We must accept the loss and have the children work harder for the next one.
By accepting their mistakes, the children learn resilience, a trait that will ensure success in the long term. This resilience allows our children to let losses roll off their backs and move on to the next. Of course, they need to be accountable for what led to the failure, but also work harder to earn a better grade on the next assignment.
At Project Be You, we choose to teach our students resiliency and accountability so they can make mistakes in a safe environment and grow from them.
Everything we teach is about growth and how everything will affect our students as they grow older and move on in the real world. These skills give our students the strength and courage to try new things, even if it means failure on the first go around.
*Used in writing the above article:
https://www.boredteachers.com/inspiring/let-our-kids-fail and Mistakes that Worked by Charlotte Foltz Jones