Come on girls, fail better! The schools that teach it's okay to not always succeed
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.You might have thought, on hearing this week that a British girls’ school is going to start setting its 11-year-old pupils a test that it’s impossible to get 100 per cent in, that the teachers have snapped. “That’s it!” I can imagine an anguished denizen of the staff room bellowing. “Give the toerags a test so tough they’ll be begging for mercy next term!” But no. Oxford High School for Girls wants to teach its scholars that it’s acceptable “not to get everything right” and that they shouldn’t be too concerned about being “little Miss Perfect”. Blooming heck, I can’t imagine my old headmistress going for that.
However, teaching children to fail has become trendy. At Wimbledon High School, there’s even a failure week, during which students learn not to fear screwing up.
Still, if the gals are anything like the alpha 11-year-olds I know, it’ll be a fight to see who does best… by scoring zero. After me, children, if at first you don’t succeed, try again. Fail again. Fail better.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments