One Mistake is OK

Before one of my classes yesterday, I was sitting in on the Mandarin class at my school.  "Ms. Y," one of the students asked, "Can I pleeeeease retake the test now?"

Ms. Y looked confused.  "K," she replied, "You only made one mistake on the test.  You don't need to retake it!  One mistake is OK!"

"No it's not," M protested.  "I can't believe I messed that up!"  He continued to beat himself up for the one tiny mistake he made, resulting in him getting a 98 rather than a 100.  Ms. Y refused to argue with him.  One mistake was OK, and she was sticking to that.  She told me later that she has been working with this student all year on being able to make mistakes.

And this brought me back to Perfection.  I have spent a great deal of the year teaching my students that I am not looking for *perfection.*  Instead, I am looking for proficiency, and a willingness to learn from their mistakes.  I am not looking for the student who can memorize everything and spit it back at me, but the student who knows what questions to ask.  That's what I care about.

I want to see their BEST work.  Their best work is not Perfect work.  Your best can always be better--otherwise 'improvement' would not exist as a word.  If you don't get a perfect score, read the comments, ask me the right questions, and learn why.  Maybe you'll do better next time.  Don't ask me the "Why didn't you give me a 100?" question.  Ask me "Why is this incorrect?  Did I need to use the subjunctive here?"  I'll happily walk you through it!

The advice I gave to my Seniors as they prepared to head to college, was the following:  "Take risks.  Don't be afraid to make mistakes. When you do make mistakes, learn from them.  I know everyone tells you this, but I think, and I hope you do too, that we lived it in this class, and I hope you all can apply it to the college world."  My students agreed.

How do we learn that mistakes are OK?  What can we do to encourage risk-taking and learning from our mistakes?