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Resilience and embracing the inevitability of failure Peter Robson Director of Positive Education and Wellbeing
In Paris in 1910, the then President of the United States of America, Theodore Roosevelt, spoke at a gathering of over 2000 people. He attempted to rally a group of government ministers, members of the armed forces and students to be outraged, with the purpose of attacking the vocal majority he believed had been publicly critical of the minority who were trying to make the world a better place. It was the prologue to his now famous speech as he went on to applaud those who were metaphorically ‘in the arena’, willing to confront the possibility of failure. He explained that ‘there is no effort without error and shortcomings’, encouraging his audience to attempt great things with the knowledge that failure is inevitable at some point. Roosevelt saved all of his criticism for those he described as ‘cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat’. In the Australian vernacular, we would say he was full of praise for the individual who ‘gives it a go’. It is a principle that has stood the test of time. Over 100 years later, this concept remains a prominent aspect of what we at Carey believe is vital in a progressive education where the intention is to enable students to become wise, independent and motivated as learners. We have used the word ‘resilience’ to capture this particular focus, where the 16 | Torch
individual must change what they are doing in order to manage a setback. Resilience is a vital quality; it is one of our nine Carey Positive Learner Attributes and is our whole-school focus in 2019. Developing resilience is an ingredient necessary in the healthy learner, regardless of whether the learner is a
child in our Early Learning Centre or an adult member of the Carey community. Confrontation with failure is not something that is readily sought, but the building of resilience only happens when a setback is acknowledged and managed. A question that can be asked, and one we encourage staff to ask of
