Thursday, February 4, 2010

The "Value" of Failing?

"Failure to Fail"
(Why are students no longer flunking university? Is it their brains, or their wallets? )

In this article from The Walrus, Jay Teitel goes on the search for the "Last Person to Flunk Out of a Canadian University", discovering along the way why such a person is so elusive.

I accidentally read the last page first, and in some ways I think it's the most interesting. Teitel's points about the perceived ramifications of failure in the students' collective consciousness are both extant and unfortunate. Maybe it's just me, but I will admit to an odd satisfaction, even pride, after learning that, for the first time ever, I had failed a course in my second year of studying for a B.Mus. It didn't hurt that I was probably the first person in school history to fail that particular course, giving the whole story a certain epic quality (and I've always been one for stories), and it certainly wasn't something I wished to repeat (especially after my brief but pointed discussion with the head of the Arts Department), but nonetheless it wasn't the horrific experience I'd always believed it to be.

It's funny, but since failing, since putting that one blemish on my "prefect record", it's been a whole lot easier to put those aspects of my life (education, course-work, etc.) into perspective. Would I fail that class again if given the chance? No (in fact, I did quite well in it the second time around). Did failing that one class ruin me? Absolutely not. If anything, it just may have made me a better person.

1 comment:

  1. I never failed academically until university, when I shirked my work and took a dean's vacation.

    I don't think I'd do it the same way twice. Make no mistake, it was a destructive and painful path.

    But it taught me a heck of a lot about shame, and something more about why people do what they do.

    ReplyDelete