Failure and education- Does failure really teach success?
Okay, so yes it is a question which always pops up in my head and I always argue with myself. Does failure really teach one the meaning of success? When I ask this question, I talk in terms of modern days of educational system and the humiliation students receive for failing.
Well, before I begin, I know many would say,” Yes it does” and will talk about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg so on and so forth. And if someone is living in the past or loves the past, he will take the name of Albert Einstein or Thomas Edward. But they are now past and many whom I have named are dead. And if we go back to the past, we clearly know education wasn’t a necessity back then. Only the elite used to go to schools or universities, and if we look at our past not long back, at the history of Pakistan, if a child has completed his bachelors he is a gentleman in front of everyone’s eyes. The past was different than the present in terms of education level. Now every child has to do a minimum of bachelors degree to get a low paid job.
Just close your eyes and open your imagination and see yourself as the CEO or Director or Founder of your own company you are now working for, and if you are a student or unfortunately unemployed, what is the harm of just imagining yourself in a company you want to work in? Think of yourself as someone who is taking new recruits from a university, would you rather take a person who has a high GPA or a low GPA, without interviewing them? By doing the basic math, it is obvious you will initially want to choose the student with the higher GPA.
We always hear people saying “If you never fail you never tried anything new”, then why, when a child fails, we see people avoiding that child or is seen as disgrace of the family? Why not encourage him/her or see if he/she has other interests? Why humiliate the child if he/she fails in a particular subject or class? Why are parents adamant that their child should come first in class? Why not accept him/her who for what he/she is?
If failure really teaches success, then why is a child scared of failing? Many children are out there who commit suicide after encountering failure.
This proverb is just to give a false hope to people or students who fail. This saying has no value in today’s fast moving, modern life, where only success from the beginning counts.