Failure is an Option

In the movie, Apollo 13 Gene Kranz, the flight director for NASA at the time was credited with the quote, "Failure is not an option".  Even though not any of the astronauts or people associated with the space program actually said that it was a good quote for a movie as well as a title for a book Kranz would later write.  However, it characterized the determination of getting astronauts home safely during the Apollo 13 mission.  In that sense that mantra was extremely important for everyone involved to have that frame of mind. Of course in NASA's attempts to build rockets and develop a space program before astronauts were ever sent into space, failure was an option.  Improvement and perfection require and demand mistakes.  It is important to see what doesn't work before we as people know what does and will continue to work.

That thought process of failure is extremely important in education.  For so long it seems that the opposite thought process of not failing was preached so to speak.  There is a Domino's Pizza commercial that is currently airing where two Domino's executives state that 'failure is an option'.  Andy Wetzel, of Domino's product innovation states, "At Domino's failure is an option!  We know everything isn't going to work".
Also, Scott Hinshaw who is Executive Vice President of Operations says, "In order to get better, in order to move ahead you're gonna make mistakes."  This type of outlook has to be mirrored in education.  Not only for our students but also for our teachers, parents, community member, and all stakeholders alike.  Mistakes will happen.  What we learn from those mistakes and how we move forward are paramount and of the most importance.  There is no success without failure.  I am using several quotes in this entry.  I will use another one from Robert Kennedy; "Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly."

As educators it is so important for us to understand that failing along the way will make not only ourselves stronger but make our students stronger and help them achieve and learn so many life lessons along the way. We want to perfect our craft and be as complete as possible.  None of that will happen without failure along the way.  I hope that this thought will hit home for educators and parents alike as we are about to begin the school year.  I will leave you with a quote from the great Winston Churchill; "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."