As teachers, we want our students to be successful. Obviously. We plan and prepare to help them follow the best, smoothest paths for learning. We worry when they struggle and find themselves tempted to give up. Our hearts ache when our students fail, experience setbacks, and are disappointed. That’s how we should feel.
However, we also need to remember that failure, setbacks, disappointments, and other negative life experiences are inevitable. They are simply a component of living. Experiencing challenging circumstances in relatively low-stakes environments, like school, can help students to develop healthy perspectives, build emotional strength, and gain coping skills necessary for success in life.
As much as we want students to experience joy, have fun while learning, and find immediate success, we also need to be ready to guide students through difficult times. We can remind ourselves and them that these experiences are also part of learning and preparation for what will come later in life. Of course, we also may need to share this perspective with our students’ parents and guardians. They, too, worry when learning and life are challenging for their children.
The truth is that setbacks, struggles, and disappointments can be valuable life and learning experiences for students. While we want to protect them, we also need to support the learning and growth that difficult experiences can generate. Here are eight important outcomes that can result from difficult challenges.
Adversity and struggle can lead students to:
- Build resilience. Facing difficulties, overcoming failure, and bouncing back are key to life success. School can be a place where struggles and failure are experienced in an environment with safety nets, mentors, and second chances. These supports may not always be as readily available later in life.
- Grow confidence. Overcoming difficulties and surviving disappointments can be rewarding and create a sense of accomplishment. When future challenges arise, students who have experienced past successes are more likely to have the confidence that success is again possible.
- Create motivation. When students reflect on past triumphs achieved despite struggles and disappointments, they can find motivation to persist until success arrives. Recollection of past accomplishments during times of struggle can offer strong motivation and the confidence to prevail.
- Develop perspective. When struggle and disappointment are unfamiliar experiences, students can doubt their abilities and question their chances for success. Their doubts and questions readily emerge because the experience is new. However, when struggle is a familiar experience and disappointment has been survived in the past, panic and giving up are not the first options students are likely to consider.
- Grow problem-solving skills. Having experienced adversity in the past can lead students to be more likely to practice critical thinking rather than become paralyzed. They are more likely to search for and explore options and alternatives rather than immediately giving up.
- Build coping skills. When students experience and survive failure, feeling disappointed, or having to find answers when they are not apparent, they can build emotional strength and coping strategies. Discovering self-reliance and practicing independence in times of emotional challenge can instill confidence that the issue or circumstance of the moment will not be permanent. Life will get better and there are actions and attitudes that can carry them through.
- Tolerate risk. When students learn to cope with failure and overcome difficult challenges, they are more likely to take future risks and embrace opportunities that may not promise guaranteed success. Understanding and taking responsible risks can be key to life success and satisfaction.
- Appreciate success. Having experienced failure, lived through setbacks, and struggled to prevail in the face of adversity can make success more meaningful and instill greater pride in accomplishments. When success always comes easy, it may lose its thrill and be taken for granted.
Of course, we want to protect our students from excessive stress and struggle. Yet, we need to be attentive to the learning that can accompany difficult circumstances and challenges. What is most important is that we are here to comfort, coach, and support them and their learning.
