1.1 Inspirational Quote

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  Posted by CUNY Mindset Initiative on December 26, 2023 at 4:27 pm

  1.1 Inspirational Quote

  “Failure is a greater teacher than success.”​

  —  Clarissa Pinkola Estés

  💬  Discussion:

  1. Respond to this quote: Comment, reflect, agree/disagree, share a similar or contradictory quote, or provide an example to support or reject this quote. You may use text, video, audio, etc.
  2. Respond constructively and substantively (≥2 sentences) to another participant’s comments.

• Samantha Sheppard-Lahiji (she/her)

  Member

  July 15, 2024 at 10:58 am

  I can see the benefit of this statement as it relates to Biology especially within the laboratory setting. In our close ended labs, students are often getting successful outcomes because of protocol design and lab instructor guidance. They see the solution and are happy that their data matches the expected outcome. However, student responses largely vary when they are tasked with assessments like lab reports in which they have data they need to analyze that doesn’t reflect expected outcomes. I noticed that students who did not get through their protocols successfully or had to revise/redo certain parts to reach the correct data performed better on these lab reports because their “failures” within the lab allowed them to think critically about the importance of their reagents and how they impact results. Students who got it correct the first time had a harder time finding reasonable conclusions for why an experiment may not have worked. But I do agree with earlier posts that the word failure is a hard one to use in a student environment and that different language would help make students more open to accepting this as something that they can benefit from.
  Jaime Woody (She/Her)

  Member

  July 15, 2024 at 11:09 am

  I agree with the quote. In life, you have many successes, big and small. Some are memorable, others remain in your mind for a short period of time. Failures you remember for a lifetime. Each time motivation is needed, people will be able to go back to a time they failed and how they overcame the failure and what was learned, and apply that to future situations.
  Laura Tamman (she/her)

  Member

  July 15, 2024 at 11:10 am

  Agree. Failure is hard because it is painful. And the only thing that makes it easier to handle is to continue to experiment and fail.
  Lee Schere (he/him)

  Member

  July 15, 2024 at 11:10 am

  Agreed, though failure is the kind of teacher you often appreciate in retrospect rather than in the moment!
  Gabriel San Emeterio (They/elle)

  Member

  July 15, 2024 at 11:10 am

  Nobody wakes up after a perfect day and says “i learned something”
  Nina Bannett

  Member

  July 15, 2024 at 11:11 am

  I think both success and failures are helpful to one’s personal growth.
  John Beaumont

  Participant

  July 15, 2024 at 11:11 am

  Failure can be a greater teacher than success if the individual has the implicit or explicit skills to do this. The learning may happen in the moment or years later. Reflection and ability/freedom to act, I imagine are key.
  Carolyn Stallard (she/her/hers)

  Member

  July 15, 2024 at 11:11 am

  I think failure is equally important to success. If you’ve been discouraged and tried something many times without success, you may feel like giving up; one tiny success can make a big difference in whether you continue or quit. Failure is of course also very useful for reflecting and learning, but the validation of success if you’ve only had failures can be motivating.
  Elizabeth Stevenson (she/her)

  Member

  July 15, 2024 at 11:11 am

  Completely agree with this quote. I often think about the way that making mistakes is how we learn and grow. I often talk to students about practicing making mistakes, and getting comfortable with making mistakes. I use words like “mistake” rather “failure,” because I think failure has a much more dramatic and negative connotation.
  Thomas Michael Conroy

  Participant

  July 15, 2024 at 11:12 am

  I agree.I can also draw upon my own personal experience from through my life. Failure can cause you to rethink how you approached a task and try a different approach.
  Joan Castro

  Member

  July 15, 2024 at 11:12 am

  I agree with this generally, but, in the heat of the moment I can’t help but feel the failure before I am able to look at it objectively much later. The learning sometimes happens much later when it is not as obviously useful.
  Olena Zhadko

  Participant

  July 15, 2024 at 11:12 am

  When the experience is negative we tend to spend more time analyzing the situation, deconstructing it and identifying areas for improvement. It serves as a great learning/growth experience as long as we are able to reframe our mindset and see it that way.
  Shawna M. Brandle (she/her)

  Member

  July 15, 2024 at 11:13 am

  I love this quote!  It reminds me of my favorite Beckett quote, “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”  A few years ago, I wrote it on a snake in an interactive art exhibit in Tokyo, released the snake into the exhibit, and watched it immediately get eaten.  I think it’s very powerful to fail and learn from it (my first solo-authored article was a scholarship of teaching and learning article about a major failure ;o)

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  Gabriel San Emeterio (They/elle)

  Member

  July 15, 2024 at 11:13 am

  Hi John — I agree with you that we must have the ability and room to reflect and act to learn from failure. Additionally, having a mentor or guidance is key to learning from “failure”.
  Gordon Alley-Young (he/him/his/il/lui)

  Member

  July 15, 2024 at 11:13 am

  I have learned so much in my life by failing whether it is a kinesthetic skill or a piece of knowledge. A jump off on that idea is that there are times when I have not failed but the repetition or continuing to use something once I’ve been successful has also been an important aspect of my learning. For instance, in learning a language I was most successful when using it over and over and both being corrected or being successful and using the same path again to continue to be successful. I have found that if I make a mistake early in learning something I have to keep repeating the correct answer to rewrite my brain’s desire to direct me to what my first choice was.