From the Principal

Dear Parents, Carers and Students

Recently Pope Francis sent a video message to participants of Hechos 29, a youth conference in Monterrey, Mexico, on evangelization in the digital age. In this message he stated, "Do not be afraid to make mistakes,".

Pope Francis often speaks to youth about having the courage to take risks and to make mistakes. In his address, he said to the young people that… "I never tire of repeating that I prefer a church that is wounded because it goes out to the existential peripheries of the world, rather than a church that is sick because it remains closed up in its own little securities,".

I was thinking about Pope Francis’ advice when reflecting on our Year 12 students who are preparing for their mock exams and after I recently had the chance to talk to a few Year 12 students who were agonising over missed opportunities and responses from their previous exams and assessment. I reminded the students that it is OK to make mistakes as it is from mistakes and taking risks that we learn and grow. Following on from this I thought I might share some further thoughts on this topic.

The Role of Mistakes in Making a Success of us all

Learning from mistakes must be recognised as a normal, and necessary, part of the process of learning for ALL students.

Unfortunately, the curse of perfection has led to too many people being shamed by mistakes and, as a consequence, many fear making mistakes and failing. Yet, all of us make mistakes and experience failure in our daily lives precisely because we are imperfect. We must see and we must educate our children to see our imperfection as a gift. This is so because it grants each of us the opportunity to grow, to develop and to learn from our mistakes and failures.

Studies in the fields of Neuroscience and Psychology continue to demonstrate that making mistakes enhances students’ ability to problem solve; to think critically and to analyse their work. It also triggers brain growth, builds their intelligence and teaches them to become more resilient in the face of failure and life’s challenges.

Our students must develop the skills needed to become reflective, independent, life-long learners. Making mistakes in the learning process is crucial to developing these much-needed qualities for life beyond school. As educators (parent and teacher) of adolescents, we have a shared responsibility to educate our children/students to value their mistakes as something to be embraced and learn from. We must work together to take mistake-making from a position of shame to one that our adolescents seize upon as an opportunity for learning, growing and becoming the best of themselves.

Learning from mistake-making is a stepping-stone to success in life. It is good to remind our adolescents that without making mistakes all we have is “UNTRIED” ability. A wasted opportunity to find out more about ourselves and life.

I hope that these thoughts will generate some conversation between our families and students on the importance of striving for excellence and participating and persevering through striving to learn.

Kort Goodman - Principal - KGoodman@sjc.qld.edu.au