Mistakes As Learning At Our Christian School

I was with a relative who was paying for items at a checkout. Ten steps past the cashier’s till, it was realized that too much change had been given. Honesty and integrity won out over the anticipated delay in resolving the situation. When the other customers had finished, the error was presented.

“No, it was right. We don’t make mistakes here.”

Removed from the story, the statement seems a little ridiculous and plenty arrogant. Mistakes are part of our life, but what we do with them shapes their helpful or detrimental outcome. You could argue that wisdom comes from embracing one’s mistakes, and realizing that they are window to discovery and learning.

Golden learning moments are left unharvested when we pass by mistakes and carry on as if there is nothing to be gleaned from deliberately retracing the pathway. Somehow we’ve created a tendency in students to want to bury mistakes out of sight and try to quickly forget them.  That’s a sad reality. Certainly we want them feel the exhilaration of success, but the greatest potential for them to learn may well be to re-visit the places where they did not find success the first time. I’ve heard before of a helpful analogy that showed it this way: an airline pilot who first perfects the art of a good landing in a flight simulator environment hundreds of times, then moves to real-life situations under the watch full eye of an experienced pilot, all the while learning from mistakes made. Only when those items are in good shape does s/he attempt a landing solo.

God gave a tremendous blessings when he created the safe sandbox of childhood. There, under the watchful eye of loving adults, children can have free range to make mistakes within boundaries. The art comes in the balance of leaving room for children to fail, while preventing long term unchangeable consequences that will hurt them. I’m thankful for Christian Education at LCES that helps to navigate that balancing act.

SJ