<p>Getting speakers to campus that can talk about failure and bouncing back:</p>
<p>Failure</a> 101: A class students could use - Education- msnbc.com</p>
<p>a great link, and a great subject…I don’t think Jayson Blair is the best example, but it’s absolutely true that kids should hear about people who have done well without becoming stars, and from people who have failed and then succeeded, about all the ups and downs that make up any long career or long life.</p>
<p>I agree, this is great. Anything that gives students (and their families) perspective is fantastic. </p>
<p>Kids today (maybe kids yesterday too…), hold onto an illusion that there is only one narrow, specific path one can take, and if you don’t figure out the path by 7th grade, or if you figure out the path but step off it even slightly, you are doomed. Kids stressing over their imagined career a decade from now because they got the wrong teacher for spanish, or feeling like grad school is a pipe dream now that they are ‘only’ getting into a school ranked 21… Anything that can rescue them from this kind of thinking and enable them to explore and take risks with less stress is fantastic. </p>
<p>Steve Job’s commencement speech at Stanford touches upon his failure and its really wonderful (you can find it on youtube with the words steve jobs stanford)</p>
<p>True
someof the greatest times of learning and moving forward are found in places of adversity</p>
<p>“Kids today (maybe kids yesterday too…), hold onto an illusion that there is only one narrow, specific path one can take, and if you don’t figure out the path by 7th grade, or if you figure out the path but step off it even slightly, you are doomed.”</p>
<p>Some of that pressure is put there by parents and educators though…kids take “tests” to determine what their suggested career path should be in middle school and suddenly guidance counselors start to pigeon-hole them into a line of study to meet that path. Some (not all) parents start to push their children into the idea that if they don’t take this course or that course they won’t get into this school or that school and have to “settle” for less.</p>
<p>It frustrates me to no end to see good kids pushed too early. Its one reason we told both our kids that if anyone within the school starts to ask “What do you want to be/study” they do NOT have to answer. If they insist on an answer, we told them to say “ditch-digger”, and then call us.</p>
<p>My daughter found her major on her own through her studies in high school, and is now following her passion. My son is a sophomore and has no clue whatsoever what he wants to do. He knows college is in his future, but is not interested yet in even looking at whats out there. I’m fine with that, and so is my husband. We keep telling him to just explore, even if it means he ends up at CC for two years. Better to try a lot of things out now than make a choice you could be unhappy with for the 40+ years of your career.</p>