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Thriving in Academe
Best Practices

Leaving Room for Failure

Failure can be a powerful lesson. Many effective service learning experiences include false starts, errors, and occasionally, failure. As we all know, that's life. Thus, as a service learning facilitator, one needs to know when to stand back and let things fall apart. Most importantly, one needs to help students explore the value in unexpected outcomes. Instead of saying “I told you so,” we need to say “What can we learn from this?”

Failure is also relative—just ask the students in my Democratic Citizenship class working on an accessible playground project. When students planning a telethon to raise money and awareness learned of the TV station's change of heart, failure appeared imminent. Some students fretted about the potential impact on their grade (a non-issue); others stepped up and took the challenge head-on. As a result of the latter group's hard work, the defunct telethon emerged into a community festival that exceeded expectations and taught everyone a lesson in perseverance and self-reliance.

When freshmen and sophomores have doubts as to whether their grant efforts will be funded or if a group will offer support, I am honest. Such endeavors require a lot of work without a guaranteed return. Nonetheless, grant-writing, advocacy, and team-building are valuable experiences regardless of outcome.

As I often remind students, it's not all about the outcome. It's about the process of learning. If we are to offer students real world experience, we must also allow them to face real world challenges.

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