Redefining Fair & The Value Of A Mistake

As we arrive at the end of second term, here are two thoughts about growth and change in our place of learning:

Fairness rarely means sameness. More often, fair means everyone gets what they need, not everyone gets the same thing.

We find ourselves working with this truth often at LCES. A real sign of growth in perception of others for our students is realizing that everyone’s life, their ability to learn and contribute in different ways, and each person’s gifts and talents are unique to them. Each student is dearly loved, uniquely made, and specifically equipped by God for his purposes with them. Great things happen in a community of learners when that is understood.

Mistakes are the keys to a student’s learning.

In learning as in life, things don’t always go the way we wish they would. Especially the first time.

This is true for our students as well; the greatest potential for them to learn may well be to re-visit the places where they did not find success the first time. A helpful analogy I’ve heard is an airline pilot who first perfects the art of a good landing in a flight simulator environment hundreds of times, then moves to real-life situations under the watch full eye of an experienced pilot, all the while learning from mistakes made. Only when those processes are practiced to high level of skill does s/he attempt a landing solo.

A huge potential barrier to student learning is the negative stigmatism of a mistake, or methods of evaluation and assessment that frequently lead students to be quick to compare to others and their results. Never arriving at the reflective spot of looking at their own learning with an eye toward growth is a lost opportunity.

We pray that our students’ lives are full of learning about all of God’s world, including themselves as learners. SJ