4-1: The Third Tenet

This chapter is about the actual work of the learning journey. We're past planning, past resource selection—this is the rubber meeting the road. As you set out, it may seem like the road ahead will be mostly a straight line of progress, constantly improving over time.

This is not the case. And that brings us to the Third Tenet:

Tenet 3: Failure is Necessary

Your progress will have fits and starts. Sometimes learning will go smoothly, other times it will be like banging your head against a wall. Sometimes, even when you think you've mastered a concept or skill, you will fail when you attempt to test that mastery. All of this is not just okay, it is required.

Failure is when we recognize the gaps in our learning. It doesn't feel particularly good in the moment, but it also forces us to reexamine ourselves and the material. Without failure, we would go on blithely thinking our understanding is complete—right up to the moment when life itself tests us, and we are found wanting.

It is culture that governs our response to failure more than anything. Throughout school and adult life, we are conditioned to think of failure as shameful. Nothing could be further from the truth. All achievements, on any scale, have only come through failure. Professionals of any stripe will tell you that only repeated failure could have led to success.

You are not being graded. You never should have been, but that's a topic for another day. Nobody is judging you but you. Give yourself some grace, and chase failure in your learning endeavors. Understand how and why it occurred, then go back and try again. Chase failure, because in time, you'll start finding something else.

The Zone

That being said, if you're failing constantly, it's time to reassess where you are with the help of a little education theory!

Lev Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development has become a keystone theory of modern pedagogy. The short version: learning activities should be challenging, require growth, but not be entirely out of reach for the learner. Keeping your learning activities in the "ZPD" is a constant struggle as a self-directed learner. You need to engage in quite a bit of metacognition to consider whether what you just did was too hard, too easy, or just right.

Mind the Zone, Goldilocks, and do not let the bears eat you.