Failure 101: Colleges Teach Students How to Cope With Setbacks

This is a good article from the wall street journal

By


Melissa Korn

Updated Dec. 19, 2018 5:12 p.m. ET

Colleges nationwide are trying to instill in students a concept
that seems contrary to encouraging excellence: It’s OK to fail
sometimes.

Vanderbilt University, Princeton University and other schools
have workshops and post online vignettes with students and staff
discussing their failures and moments of self-doubt, while University of
Montana students post “Best Fail Ever” stories on bulletin boards
around campus and Colorado State University has passed out thousands of
stickers with inspirational quotes about resilience.

At the University of Central Arkansas, the two-year-old Fail
Forward Week encourages faculty to talk about failure and show TED talks
on the subject. Students write about their own failures, ranging from
academic challenges to relationship woes, on large sheets of paper
placed around campus.

Sheila Atiemo, 20, a
junior at Bentley University, felt unmoored after realizing she didn’t
enjoy—and wasn’t performing well in—an accounting class last year. ‘I
freaked out,’ she said.


Photo:

Kayana Szymczak for The Wall Street Journal

“We always painted failing a class or failing a test in a
completely negative light, and we didn’t give the space to say if this
does happen, it’s a moment in time, and here’s the process by which you
learn from it,” said Amy Baldwin, director of the department of student
transitions.

The school’s Office of Student Success hands out certificates giving students and others permission to screw up “and still be a totally worthy, utterly excellent human being,” according to the document.

Young adults face an onslaught of curated social-media feeds
that show peers’ seemingly perfect lives, school officials say, which
can make them feel alone in their failures. Add to that the bubble of
parental protection and the high stakes associated with attending a
pricey college, and schools say students need help understanding that
stumbles are inevitable, and even valuable, parts of growing up.

Academic AnxietyShare of college graduates who said academics had been 'traumatic or very difficult for you to handle' inprior 12 monthsSource: American College Health Association National College Health AssessmentNote: Responses are from spring survey each year

%2009’10’11’12’13’14’15’16’17’18434445464748495051

“Children do not become strong if they are protected from
setbacks, teasing, exclusion and conflicts,” said Jonathan Haidt, a
professor of ethical leadership at New York University’s Stern School of
Business and co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good
Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.”

An American College Health Association survey last spring found
that 52% of undergraduate respondents said academics had been
“traumatic or very difficult to handle” within the prior 12 months, the
highest rate since at least 2009.

Florida State University began requiring new students this year
to complete an online program addressing stressors both big and small,
ranging from witnessing violence as a child to roommate conflicts.
Participants choose from an assortment of videos and audio clips, and
narratives of students describing their own challenges and coping
mechanisms are particularly popular.

University of Montana students post ‘Best Fail Ever’ stories on bulletin boards around campus.


Photo:

Laurel Naylor

FSU sophomore Aaron Ostler says many classmates don’t know how
to digest and move on from moments of failure and can benefit from
hearing about how classmates bounce back.

“They feel like if they do almost anything wrong, they’ve done everything wrong,” said the 19-year-old biology major.

Mr. Ostler said he experienced “tunnel vision” about a bad
grade in chemistry last year and briefly convinced himself he wouldn’t
get into medical school as a result.

Officials from many schools say they’re trying to ease a
resource crunch at their counseling centers, many of which have seen
skyrocketing demand for services to help students with depression and
anxiety.

Bentley University, in Waltham, Mass., is planning an event for
next spring featuring staff and faculty discussing their own failures,
and lessons learned.

Peter Forkner, director of the Bentley University counseling center, during a session with a student.


Photo:

Kayana Szymczak for The Wall Street Journal

Sheila Atiemo, a junior, says she felt unmoored after
realizing she didn’t enjoy—and wasn’t performing well in—an accounting
class last year. She previously got good grades and planned since high
school to major in the field.

“I freaked out,” said Ms. Atiemo, 20. “The thing I feared most was not knowing what comes next.”

She also worried about what her peers would think. “Bentley is a
very fast-paced, competitive school. People don’t like to share their
downfalls,” said Ms. Atiemo, who is now studying global management.

Peter Forkner, director of Bentley’s counseling center, said
the purpose of the spring event will be to help attendees accept and
learn from failure.

“The truth is failure sucks,” he said. “Failure feels bad. It’s
not something that we necessarily want to celebrate, it’s just not
something we need to feel so much shame over.”

December 16, 2018

Write to Melissa Korn at melissa.korn@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications
A
photo showing University of Montana students writing their “Best Fail
Ever” was taken by Laurel Naylor. An earlier version of this article
incorrectly credited the picture to Lauren Naylor. (Dec. 19)

Appeared in the December 19, 2018, print edition as 'Failure 101: Teaching Resilience.'