Have you ever overreacted to a mistake, either yours or your child's? Most of us have. Some of us, more often than we'd like to admit. What causes us to do this? I find that it's usually a fear of failure, something that is a definite obstacle to learning.

Making mistakes is actually a very important part of the learning process. As William James once said, "Without mistakes, how would we know what we have to work on?" 

I've been in classroom settings, meeting rooms, and groups where people were afraid to even pose a question for fear of being wrong. But being wrong is not the issue. The real issue is why you're asking the question in the first place. To get an understanding, right? So why not get all of the wrong answers out of the way so that you can get closer to the right one?

That's the whole meaning of today's Mother Wit Monday. Nothing beats a failure but a try. So encourage your young scholar today and let him or her know that there is no shame in getting it wrong a few times, especially when the goal is to get it right. After all, that's how we all got from birth to where we are today; failing our way up.

Happy Learning!