Mediocrity or Failure?

Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind shares the thought below on a recent blog post.

Most people are more frightened of failure than of mediocrity. It should be the reverse.

Failure is a broken leg — painful, but easily fixed. Mediocrity is a creeping disease — invisible and insidious — that disables so completely that there’s often no recovery.

I don’t have any data to refute his assumption and it makes sense based on my personal experience. But, looking at why this seems to be the current reality for most people is interesting and perhaps not too surprising. Where are people rewarded or encouraged when they fail? Focused only on our profession, how do we respond to students when they experience failure at getting the right answer or doing it the right way? How is the government responding to failing schools? In what context(s) are students rewarded when they do it right even though it may not be the best that they can do?

It is difficult to be successful at playing school when one experiences failure. In some ways for some students, such as in traditional grading, we support mediocrity. Get this percentage and you will pass through the system unnoticed and possibly unprepared for what lies ahead. This percentage may not have been difficult to achieve or perhaps it was even an A or B in a less challenging class. For some, it beats the fear of failing in a more rigorous classroom.

Mediocrity is the state of being mediocre. Mediocre means moderate to inferior in quality; ordinary. I don’t believe that people or systems strive for being mediocre. But, I can see why it may create a sense of well being or comfort when in place. Being ordinary means you won’t be asked to do too much, you won’t be singled out for blame or praise. You will be in a safe place. This seems like a good place to be when one is in the midst of significant change, when outside sources are setting difficult standards to achieve, when there is little energy left to try another thing, and when it is all about high demand in the absence of high support.

I don’t believe that in Tahoma we fear or embrace failure, nor do I believe that we are mediocre. We are not afraid to fail in an initiative though we work hard not to, but I think that we do fear being mediocre; just another school system with so/so results. I attribute this to many things such as those below.

1. A shared vision that focuses on ensuring that young people are prepared for success in post high school learning and work.
2. Our principals and teachers don’t settle for current reality. There is always more that can be learned and more that can be done.
3. Our system is embracing the need to ensure that high support is in place before holding ourselves accountable to the standards imposed at the state and federal level.

Learning communities do not fear failure. They use data to make decisions about how to proceed on their journey. They test changes knowing that modifications and adjustments will be necessary. They set high standards for themselves and for their students and they hold themselves accountable to achieving those standards. One thing that they don’t settle for is being ordinary, being mediocre. Pink talks about people in his post while I just described our school system made up of people. I guess that we might not be included in the “most” that he describes above. It feels good not to be in a mediocre school system working with mediocre people. Thanks for the gift of being part of this incredible journey.