Why we should be a Risk Taker

Modern culture is obsessed with winning. We often associate failure with weakness, lack of ability or skill, and (seemingly) even moral deficiency. Despite what we hear about the important role failure plays in entrepreneurship and invention, we still reward success and punish failure. Moving into the context of education, failure takes on even worse implications; it can prevent students from moving forward in their studies, which can lead to significant social stigma and financial implications.

We want students to take risks by sharing their ideas in class, by solving problems so we can view and guide their reasoning, and even by challenging arguments made in readings.  In order for students to learn from such activities, we need to establish situations where both risks and potential failures are small and manageable, where fear of failure isn’t overwhelming. If they get the wrong solution to a problem, for example, we help them identify where they made an error, hopefully in a way that encourages them to keep trying. What we don’t want to see is a student who refuses to take those more manageable risks in smaller activities and saves failure for a high-stakes assignment or exam.