Sunday, June 25, 2017

Kobayashi Maru: A No Win Situation: Is Failure Inevitable?

Describing Failure versus Success

There are so many words for making a mistake: blunder, misstep, snafu, flub, faux pas. Just to name a few. But when it comes to brass tacks, how many do we have in use for success? We have a lot that are a result of success: fortune, prosperity, fame, progress. Even accomplishment and achievement generally represent an occurrence after a success, not before. We seem to have far more words that imply we made an error or are defeated then we do for if we win. I am curious about this fact because as humans we are measured by our successes not our failures. When we feel good about ourselves it is due to an advancement or triumph, not how we got there but what was achieved. Yet, in life it is our struggles that push us forward. It is the setbacks that drive and motivate us to overcome and endure. To take-risks and solve the problem. But, it is not the process we acknowledge it is the completion. Predicaments, complications, and quandaries may not be solvable. At some point, we will be faced with a cascade of dilemmas that simply spiral and expand without recourse. We will be faced with the inevitable fact that there are situations that will leave us out of breath, confused, perplexed and down trodden. Events that even with proactiveness and contemplation will elude us.

Kobayashi Maru

Kobayashi Maru, a no win situation. In Star Trek if one attends Starfleet Academy, at some point they will be put in this position deliberately and unexpectedly. It is meant to tear down arrogance and provide insight. It creates a sense of humility because in deep space you can’t carry with you a sense of vanity, pretension and egotism because it will put those who are under your command at risk. You must be able to see a problem from all sides and be willing to take a loss, if necessary, if it is for the good of your crew. One must expect uncertainty because dangers are around every corner and if you do not anticipate them you can’t fight them, you can’t conquer them. This acceptance that failure is inevitable, that not everything can be solved, cured, or fixed has always scared me a little bit. But, as much as we should never be defeatist, we always need to be a realist, recognize our own hubris and not let it dictate our actions. It is one thing to be proud it is another to be smug and arrogant. As teachers, we know students must feel safe to fail, take-risks and grow but do we set them up to fail? Do we provide the opportunities for them to not just make small mistakes but to down-right fail, without consequence, without a grade getting in the way?

Kobayashi Maru in the Classroom

To bring Kobayashi Maru into the classroom, we must focus not on the failure or the success, but the process itself. The steps of experimentation should not be written out for them. Pre-determined supplies should not be put in buckets on their desks. Pre-made models or examples once given or displayed, limits them because even if you say it is just one way to get there, they will use it as a guide or base-line and what they need is a blank slate from which to leap. This is radical, I know, but if you start the year with three questions in mind every morning: 1) Is this lesson expecting a pre-determined result? 2) Have I limited student’s creativity by providing too much direction? 3) Have students had an opportunity to create their own experiment or activity to achieve the same result?  then you can begin to place the ownership and direction of the class into the hands of students. If you demonstrate failure by using discrepant events and science blunders and talk about why they did not work and in what ways can student’s redesign them to make them work, then failure is an opportunity rather than a result. A fluid occurrence not a finality. We must set them up deliberately to fail, Kobayashi Maru, to tear down their expectations while building up their confidence because ultimately having to analyze our mistakes, reevaluate our process and let go of our ego and settle in to failure is what being human is all about. We walk before we talk because we have the drive for mobility and exploration. But with that comes the inevitable certainty that things will not go accordingly to plan.


Students are resilient. They are motivated and determined more by a challenge then by a simple task. If we set goals high, just out of reach, they will become achievable. They must dig in their heels as they climb the summit, dirt and gravel forcing them to slip and tumble. They need to feel the urgency to continue and a little bit of apprehension. This will cause them to pause and reflect. Reflection is not something that should only happen at the end of a lesson but be a continual process as they ascend. Allowing them to notice the weak terrain and to reposition for a smoother approach. Reflection will also, make the failure more palatable because with honest reflection comes a dismantling of gall and conceit. It brings with it a vulnerability and awareness that fosters courage, poise and a little fearlessness: knowing they may be in over their head, but will persevere because they have failed many times and will use those as a catapult for success. Fortitude from failure, pliancy from practice and ultimately response from rigor and not rejection. Failure needs to be built into the routine, an expected part of their learning. Not every student gets a trophy. Not every job well done needs a sticker. What makes all the difference is not reward but the hike, reaching the peak, and looking out over the landscape, once intimidating, but now comfortable, cozy, home. 

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