Late in September, I reflected on the physical and mental challenges our Upper Schoolers experienced during their week at Camp Manito-wish.  Out of classroom opportunities help students stretch their physical, mental, and emotional "muscles" in ways that cannot be replicated in the classroom.  The unfamiliar environment, group dynamics, and time away from home work together to help students dig deep within themselves and rely on one another.  We are fortunate at Rivermont to have the flexibility and size to include such valuable experiences in our students' education.  The impact of those experiences is felt long after the trip is over.

Failure is a much maligned experience.  We often equate it with insufficiency and termination.  We do not see an "F" as an opportunity for growth and clarification.  In our achievement oriented world (over-achievement oriented?) there is no room for weakness; we must excel!  Ironically, when we look to some of our most revered icons, failure is a key component to their success, achievement, and yes, fame. 

• Abraham Lincoln - Former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln first went into politics at the age of 23 when he campaigned for a seat in the Illinois General Assembly and failed. He then opened a general store which failed after only a few months.
• Robert M. Pirsig - His well-known book 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' was rejected by 121 publishers. Since finally being published in 1974, it has sold millions of copies in 27 languages.
• John Wayne - Before his successful acting career he was rejected from the U.S. Naval Academy.
• Steven Spielberg - This household name dropped out of high school and applied to attend film school three times but was unsuccessful due to his C grade average.
• Beethoven - His music teacher once told him that he was a hopeless composer.
• Harry S. Truman - This former U.S. President was rejected by the U.S. Military & Naval Academies due to poor eyesight. At one point he was a clerk in a newspaper mailroom, and also an usher in a movie theater.
• Babe Ruth - This baseball legend struck out 1,330 times.
• Henry Ford - The Ford Motor Co. was Henry Ford's third business; the first two failed.
• Winston Churchill - This former British Prime Minister did poorly in school and had a speech impediment in his early years.
• Walt Disney - He was fired by the editor of a newspaper for lacking in ideas.
• Soichiro Honda - The founder of Honda was turned down for an engineering job by Toyota after World War II.
• Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita - These two were the founders of Sony, but one of their first products was an electric rice cooker. They only sold 100 or so cookers because they tended to burn rice rather than cook it.
• Charles Darwin - His father told him he would amount to nothing and would be a disgrace to himself and his family.
• Albert Einstein - He learned to speak at a late age and performed poorly in school.
• Thomas Edison - Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts before successfully inventing the light bulb. 
• Bill Gates - Gates didn't seem like a shoe-in for success after dropping out of Harvard and starting a failed first business with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen called Traf-O-Data.
• John Grisham - This best-selling novelist's first novel was rejected by sixteen agents and twelve publishing houses.
• J.K. Rowling - Before she published the Harry Potter series, she was nearly penniless, severely depressed, divorced, and trying to raise a child on her own while attending school and writing a novel. Rowling went from depending on welfare to being one of the richest women in the world in a span of only five years.
• Monet - During his own time, Monet's work was mocked and rejected by the artistic elite, the Paris Salon. Monet kept at his impressionist style, which caught on and in many ways was a starting point for major changes to art that ushered in the modern era.

Each learned from mistakes.  Self-esteem grew stronger with each attempt.  Setbacks were viewed as problems to be solved, not crises to lament.  Don't we wish for our children to become problem-solvers and critical thinkers?  To learn to work with others?  To analyze information and adapt?  It can galvanize one's resolve and muster resources we were unaware of.  Success is earned and failure is sometimes a part of that journey.

In a recent article, fellow Head of School, Michael G. Davis of Colorado Academy shared some lessons learned from failure.  With permission, I share his lessons with you because they echo my sentiments. 

Failure is an inevitable experience.  At Rivermont we do not seek to protect our students from failure, but rather we strive to help them learn to deal with and overcome failure and disappointment.  This is one of the most important things we can do as teachers, and as parents.  That is what Rivermont is - risk, rigor, respect, responsibility, and resilience.

For 2012, let's make it our collective resolution to understand failure for what it is - a tool and a step toward success.  Failure doesn't define us . . . it's what we do with it that does!