By Joshua Spodek

We’ve all failed at something. Maybe your team lost the big game, the one that would have taken you to the state championships. You may have stood up in front of the whole class to deliver a speech and fumbled over your words. Perhaps you’ve presented an art project to a group of people who can only find faults in your hard work.

So what do we do in these everyday situations? We practice harder, find new ways to prepare ourselves for challenges, discover what it means to take constructive criticism. We get up and we try, try again. It’s not the failure itself but what we learn from that failure that allows us to become better at what we do, makes us more well-rounded human beings. But in many US schools, failure is to be avoided at all costs…

“At all levels our schools challenge students intellectually, but socially and emotionally, they do almost nothing,” says Joshua Spodek. “But social and emotional skills are more valuable in today’s world, where facts and academic knowledge are free online.”

How do you think we can all become better at learning from our failures?

Read more at Inc.

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