In this age of helicopter parenting and participation trophies, apparently the millennial generation needs to be taught it\u2019s OK to fail, that life\u2019s stumbling blocks can be one of the best teaching tools for personal and professional growth.<\/p>\n
Princeton University this fall will offer a class to freshmen called \u201cThe “Other ‘F’ Word \u2014 Success and Innovation’s Sibling?\u201d The F word in question is failure, which the Ivy League university\u2019s website points out is \u201clike gravity \u2014 a subtle, pervasive but invaluable fact of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPrinceton students are quite appropriately and understandably focused, if not actually fixated, on success \u2014 in the classroom, on the athletic field, and for their emerging careers. But success has a less well-understood sibling, which is often a precursor and even prerequisite for that success, whether in business, science, athletics, or the arts: failure,\u201d the online class description notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough we may treat failure as a regrettable event, it has the potential to become a strategic resource, invaluable in its ability to show us \u2014 sometimes painfully and usually uncomfortably \u2014 what we don’t yet know but need to in order to succeed in our chosen objective,\u201d it adds.<\/p>\n Fittingly, students are warned “this will not be a ‘pass\/fail’ seminar.”<\/p>\n The class is offered as a voluntary freshman seminar. Such first-year seminars are often esoteric in nature, and typically hone in on narrow and unique topics and aim to introduce students to college-level inquiry and discourse.<\/p>\n Princeton\u2019s seminar will be taught by John Danner<\/a>, co-author of a 2015 book<\/a> by the same name: \u201cThe Other \u2018F\u2019 Word: How Smart Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work.\u201d The idea is to learn from one\u2019s mistakes and put them to work, argued<\/a> Danner in a 2015 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal<\/em> focused on the business world.<\/p>\n \u201cFailure is a strategic resource,\u201d he pointed out. \u201c… Failure is reality\u2019s way of showing you what you don\u2019t yet know, but need to learn. It contains the seeds of precisely the insight you\u2019ve been looking for, if you have the honesty and humility to explore those secrets.\u201d<\/p>\n Danner said<\/a> in a May 2015 interview that as he taught at Princeton he \u201crealized that students, particularly those pursuing careers in innovation where failure would be a fact of life, would benefit from discussing the topic candidly.\u201d He added the subject also became fodder for an MBA class at Berkeley, where he also teaches<\/a>.<\/p>\n A UC Berkeley websites reports<\/a> the \u201cThe Other \u2018F\u2019 Word\u201d has \u201cbeen adopted as a textbook for several entrepreneurial courses.\u201d<\/p>\n The New York Times<\/em>, in a recent feature, cited<\/a>\u00a0programs at Stanford, Harvard, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania that chronicle setbacks and stumbling blocks of successful alumni as a means of encouragement.<\/p>\n And recently Smith College, a top-ranked liberal arts school for women, rolled out<\/a> a program called \u201cFailing Well.\u201d The initiative helps students grapple with life\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about flunking out of pre-med or getting kicked out of college,\u201d Rachel Simmons, the program\u2019s facilitator, told The New York Times<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about students showing up in residential life offices distraught and inconsolable when they score less than an A-minus. Ending up in the counseling center after being rejected from a club. Students who are unable to ask for help when they need it, or so fearful of failing that they will avoid taking risks at all.\u201d<\/p>\n MORE:\u00a0Women\u2019s college offers program to help students cope with disappointment<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Like The College Fix<\/em> on Facebook<\/a> \/ Follow us on Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n IMAGE: Shutterstock<\/p>\n