C137 (Book Club): Growing Brain Power, Yes Please! (pg 122-151)

Confessions of a PYP Teacher

This is the final week of our exploration of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. We will explore how to build more intellective capacity with Zaretta Hammond. At my age, I feel like this capacity is waning, so I hope to pick up some tips!
The chapter begins with a quote by Benjamin R. Barber, a political theorist. He states, “I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures, those who make it or those who don’t. I divide the world into learners and non-learners.”
As I read this quote, I thought about how many people view success in life based on financial status, fame, and acquisition of stuff. The more that they have, the more successful that they feel. We don’t often think of the person that has repeatedly failed as a winner. Yet, the experiences and understanding they have gained by losing is probably worth more than all of the accolades from their peers.
I connect this to success in school. The accolades that schools often seek from learners are grades. If they fail, it means the school was a failure too. Since many schools are funded by the government or private investors, it’s difficult to justify that failure is a good thing.
If we look at every success story of every genius that walked the earth, they often talk about all of the failures they had. These experiences spurred them on to finding the correct solution or inventing a tool that would better mankind. Embracing failure is vital in this process. This is what independent learners do.
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