<p>Prompt: What are your thoughts on the idea that failure is necessary for education to take place?</p>
<p>For any form of education, be it informal or formal, to take place effectively, one must experience some sort of failure, defeat or adversity. Only when one fails at an endeavour is one able to understand how to achieve success in the future; one learns from one’s own mistakes. We see this reflected not only in our personal experiences, but in the lives of public figures and fictional characters.
One example of someone who succeeded because he failed is Roger Federer. Today, he is regarded as one of the best tennis players of all-time due to his record-breaking 16 Grand Slam titles and numerous other achievements. However, he was not always a champion. Indeed, he was touted from the outset of his career as having immense talent; however, during the early part of his career, he was extremely erratic - in temperament and playing style. He would squander big leads and lost his temper at the most minor of issues. Ultimately, his fortunes changed when he learnt from all his failures and understood what it meant to be a champion.
Peter Parker was another individual who was blessed with tremendous abilities, but only harnessed them in the right way when he was faced with defeat and adversity. The fictitious character who came to be known as Spiderman started out as a regular teenager who happened to be bitten by a radioactive arachnid which endowed him with extraordinary abilities. At first, he did not embrace the full extent of what his abilities enabled him to do. However, certain tragic events changed him. His uncle, Ben Parker, said to him during an argument, With great power comes great responsibility. At the time, Peter shrugged the advice off, but a few hours later, when he discovered that his uncle had been murdered, consumed by guilt, he sought to use his abilities for justice.
As students, we constantly experience setbacks and failures. We naturally, are not perfect in attempting our schoolwork. However, these imperfections are imperative for us to learn and grow. Our teachers use these mistakes to show us where we err and how to amend our mistakes. In this way, we are educated, not just in math formulae and rules of grammar, but in life as a whole.
Ultimately, no human being can progress without going through the process of trial and error. Making mistakes is a part of being human. Humans adapt to different environments; they learn to change themselves in a particular manner. This holds true for a young tennis player trying to be a champion, a teenager clueless about his new-found extraordinary abilities and for students struggling to comprehend mathematics. It is the struggle that allows the education to come full circle; no education is complete without it.</p>