Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School creates Failure Week to build resilience among students
AN elite Melbourne school wants its students to flunk, with a week of activities they expect pupils to struggle with. Why are they setting up kids to fail?
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AN elite Melbourne school is setting its students up to fail in a bid to teach them resilience.
Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar has created “Failure Week” and is expecting its students to fall flat in a number of challenges.
The private school hopes the week will cure kids of the fear of flunking.
They will have learn new skills, including juggling, reciting medieval poetry, cryptic crosswords, crochet and dancing, and perform in front of other students.
The school expects they will “likely fail”.
Head of counselling Dr Bridget McPherson said “rewarding normality and averageness” had created a cohort of students who struggled with failure.
“It is a disservice to our young people to think that they can’t cope with what life throws at them,” she said.
“They actually can and they need to be able to cope with not being exceptional all the time.”
The school program is believed to be an Australian first, although a top-performing UK girls’ school has run a similar initiative.
“Our students feel a pressure to achieve very high levels of academic performance, and they set high expectations for themselves,” Dr McPherson said.
“They often worry about making mistakes, and they struggle to tolerate the uncomfortable emotions that come with failing or being imperfect.”
Parents Victoria boss Gail McHardy said the naming of Failure Week needed work and that children were best to learn the lessons naturally.
“They really need to work on their branding,” she said.
But Dr Bella d’Abrera, from the Institute of Public Affairs, said failure could not be taught in the classroom.
“Failure is not a subject, it’s a natural part of life,” she said.
“This is yet another example of schools failing to educate their students and interfering where they shouldn’t.
“Parents paying high school fees expect their kids to be sensibly educated. Failure week does not meet that expectation.”