Failure and the Adolescent Mind

 In the discussion of educational failure, how often are the feelings and mindsets of students taken into consideration? It is a common misconception that students just need to be told not to fail and to be given harsh punishment for when those failures arise. But how does that emotionally affect the student? If a student performs poorly once, but then improves that performance after that, then teachers may think that the punishments of failure have worked. And if a student does not perform better, then they are viewed as not a good student. However mental ruts are real and can lead students down a path that will do more harm than good. 

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    Though the stigma around mental health has been declining in recent years, students, especially young ones, are rarely taught how to spot signs of declining mental health and how education can have an effect on their mental state. Whether this is because administrations fear their students are not mature enough to understand or simply because they don’t want to, what a young student is not too little for is emotional turmoil.

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    It is a very popular trope in the media and society that “smart” kids love going to school and “dumb” kids hate school. Really all this shows is how if you do good in school, you create a positive association between school and your attitude whereas if you don’t do good in school, you create a negative association. If a student continuously performs at a subpar level and all they get as an incentive to do better are the bad grades themselves, then there will be little to no change in their academic performance. “The experience of failure can be a formative one when it convinces children that how poorly they performed is the best they can do, is evidence of their innate lack of capacity, and justifies giving up on themselves.” (Pickhardt, 2011) If there is no other communication to the student other than the failure itself, they will begin to think that is all they are. A failure. In his article, Adolescence and Failure, Carl E Pickhardt says it best, “…when failing performance is equated with being a failure as a person, then sense of failure has been given lasting value.”

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    So what do these negative emotions that students experience as adolescents mean for their future? Are there persistent effects? Does this influence the work they choose to do? During the recent Covid-19 pandemic, American education saw increased rates of failure when students were welcomed back to school via hybrid learning. This caused administrators and policymakers to look deeper into the effects that failing can have on students' futures. “One year of bad grades can change the life trajectory of a high school student…” Researcher Robin Lake was quoted in the New York Times article, The Dangers of Failing Grades, by Kate Taylor and Amelia Nierenberg. And this could not be more accurate. That year of bad grades could lead to harmful patterns of underachieving. Constant failure in school then leads to decreased likelihood of graduating high school, going to college or having workforce opportunities. In the world we live in today, where everything can change so drastically and quickly, it is more important than ever to have a steady income and household amenities 

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    Bad grades do more than just lower a student GPA. They also have the power to diminish a student's confidence, self esteem and motivation. No student should feel like they’ll never be successful and no teacher should make them feel that way. Reform of the education system is very much overdue and with it must come new resources and a new attitude about failing. If students see failing as the worst thing to ever happen to them, they won’t only fear but it will take over their entire academic journey and create negative emotions that will ultimately do more harm than good. Let students breathe. Let them explore with limitless possibilities. And let them learn in a way that is not scary but encouraging and with a smile on their face.