Failing is Not a Blemish – Montessori Method Treats Failure as Stepping Stone to Success

Protecting children from exposure to difficulties is fine, but shielding them from everything may only prove detrimental to their development. Parents and teachers alike are recognizing the importance of failure – the role it plays in character building and honing the skills of children.

Why is Failing and Subsequent Learning Considered Crucial?
Parents always come to their children’s rescue. Whether it is winning in some board game or helping them with their homework or assisting them when they are struggling to button their shirt, we always wish to protect our children. While at that moment this may appear to be just fine, these acts deprive them the chances of understanding what went wrong and learn to succeed the next time, on their own.

Advantages of Failing
We adults fully well know that failure is something that cannot be always avoided – it is after all, a part of life. Not all obstacles in life can be surmounted. It is in failing once and then acquiring the knowledge and skill that is required to win—and then winning—that our skills can be honed and self-respect enhanced. Learning to deal with failure is one critical skill in life that everyone of us needs to develop for surviving in the world.

The following are a few of the exclusive benefits of failure:

•  Perseverance: Experiencing the triumph of having achieved success over something you first failed is a great feeling – challenges and failures are to be treated as ways to attain big successes. By dealing with failure, children learn to develop the vital tool in life – grit. This allows them to learn to work dedicatedly and unrelentingly toward accomplishing success.
•  Resilience: Letting children fail at petty tasks gives them the strength and resilience required for recovering from other obstacles in life
•  Self-esteem: Although it might appear contradictory, letting children fail improves their self-esteem: by allowing them to handle the situation, we make them feel confident and capable

How Does Montessori Method Leverages Failure

•  By reframing failure as an opportunity in disguise to learn, you empower children to not only manage failure but also persevere and succeed
•  Talking children through failure allows them to voice how they feel and lets us impart positive feelings in them
•  Modeling failure lets children see the reality. Even petty things that can be performed by adults but not by children are looked upon as great by them – children look at adults as superheroes. We need to show them that nobody can be perfect – this makes them realize that they are not alone when it comes to failing.

Saharanalaya School follows the principles of Dr Maria Montessori. We have trained and experienced teachers who understand the emotions of the young children and guides them through the crucial period of childhood. Our endeavor is developing the characters and skills required by children for facing the practical world. For more details log on to https://www.sharanalayaschool.com/