SAT Prompt: Learning starts with failure; the first failure is the beginning of education

Try, try, and try again,” the old saying goes. “Learn from your mistakes,” you parents tell you. However, I believe that this is not always true, and that failures are sometimes the opposite of the catalyst of learning. In fact, sometimes they are the end of the road for learning. This is the evident in school, where you repeatedly make the same mistake, and are discouraged by your failures. Failures do not necessarily foster learning.

When one considers school, one does not often think that failing a class will help you learn and pass. One does not fail a test in order to get a good grade. One also does not fail in order to get into a good school and educate oneself. Failure in school is typically not an option if one wants to do well. Therefore, failure in school does not equal education. 

Similarly, if one fails once and fails doing the exact same thing again, one is not learning from one’s failure. Repeatedly failing without attempting to rectify the failure is pointless. For example, making a cake and ending up with a pile of inedible matter and then doing that repeatedly does not reach one anything. One has to identify and correct the mistake causing the failure otherwise one does not learn. This often does not happen. 

My final points is that failure often leads to quitting and abandonment of a task and nothing is gained. I have often found myself throwing away a jigsaw puzzle after failing to assemble it correctly. Had I stuck to making it and preserved, perhaps I would’ve learned a technique to assembling and the jigsaw. This shows that sometimes failure, rather than helping one to learn a lesson, often ends up discouraging people from trying. 

In conclusion, as shown in the aforementioned examples, I believe that the start of education and learning something is not necessarily initiated with a failure. But I do believe other things, such as curiosity, would better foster and begin the process of learning.