WEBVTT

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I'm here tonight to share my sincere hope
for your complete and utter failure.

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I want you to fail,
and I want you to fail.

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And in the back row
- I didn't forget about you -

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I want you to fail as well.

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I want everyone here tonight to fail.

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Now, as a dad
and an elementary school principal,

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I wish for the same thing
for all my kids.

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I not only hope that they fail,
I encourage them to do so.

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The reason for this is simple.

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I believe that the way
society views failures

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to be totally and completely wrong.

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Most people, they view failure as final,
as a conclusion,

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as a reflection of who and what they are.

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In a word, for most people,
they think failure sucks.

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But it's not their fault.

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We've had this drilled into our heads
from our earliest days in school.

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Some of you might remember

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the time you came home
from kindergarten without a sticker

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because you didn't master your ABCs.

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Or maybe it was an F
that you got on a homework assignment,

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or possibly a below-average score
on a standardized test.

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Failure has been seen as frightening,
and worst of all, defining.

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My position is these attitudes are sending
dangerous and destructive message

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that tells that the failure is bad,
and that we should avoid it at all cost.

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I'm here to tell you
that message is wrong,

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and our views of failure
are all wrong as well.

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After all, history is filled
with famous failures,

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from the student whose teacher said

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was too stupid to learn anything,
Thomas Edison,

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to the newspaper man
who was fired by his editor

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because he lacked imagination
and had no good ideas, Walt Disney.

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Of course, this gentleman,
perhaps the most famous failure of all,

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who was defeated when he ran
for state legislature, failed at business,

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who was defeated when he ran for Congress,

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and defeated twice
when he ran for U.S. Senate,

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but who overcame all that

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to change the world
as our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln.

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Now, of course, not all failures
can be this famous.

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I failed many times in my life,
and I bet if I ask each of you,

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you would have your own story to tell.

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The story I'll tell you here tonight
comes from my own education.

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You see, I breezed through elementary
and middle school, earning only As and Bs,

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always thought of as one
of the smartest kids in my grade.

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And then I hit high school.

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I can remember specifically
Mr. Malone's calculus class

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because that's when I earned my first C,
and then the Ds and the Fs followed.

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I hadn't learned how to struggle
with school work,

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or really anything at all.

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So I started to pull away from the area
where I had previously excelled.

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I did finish high school,

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and I went on to Montclair State College
in New Jersey,

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and then I promptly quit after one month.

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Sorry mum and dad. Love you.

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I didn't want
to be associated with something

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that made me feel worthless.

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It took eleven years of soul-searching,
bad decisions, and lots of struggle

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before I earned
my elementary education degree

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and ended up doing something

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that I'm passionate about
each and every day.

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It took those years of failure
to pave the way for my success.

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But I don't want our children
to wait that long.

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Because these examples,
the famous and the not so famous,

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they teach us that there's no reason
to fear failure.

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It is not a character trait;
it's an event.

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It's not an end; it's an opportunity
to learn, explore and improve.

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And most importantly,
it's not the opposite of success,

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as most people believe;

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it is a key component of it.

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Being able to fight through,
pick yourself up

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and get yourself back on track
in and of itself is success.

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And we must teach this to our children.

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In fact, I believe, out of all the things

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we should be teaching
in our schools right now,

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the most important thing of all
is teaching our children how to fail,

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showing them
there's nothing wrong with failure.

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You know that famous phrase
about death and taxes?

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That's all wrong.

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They are not the only certainties in life;
failure is also a certainty.

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Every single one of us will fail,

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but being able to accept it,
learn from it, and move on

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is the life lesson
that each of us must learn.

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And you're never too young to start.

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Therefore, encouraging
and embracing failure

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is the single most important change
that we need in education today.

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What happens in schools
is previous failures,

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they add up to doom
a student to fail again.

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Or even worse, to get it lodged in here

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so they're even afraid
to try again tomorrow,

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and what a shame that is,

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at the lost opportunities
because people felt labeled as failures.

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But just imagine if schools started
teaching failure for what it really is,

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a stop along the road of success,

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a moment to pause, rethink and re-imagine.

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Or how about this one?

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An event exploding with opportunity

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to acquire knowledge,
deepen understanding,

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and to emotionally and intellectually
prepare for life.

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Do you like the sound of that one?

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It happens to be the definition
of the word "education".

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So, what I’m saying to you tonight

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is that education and failure
are synonymous.

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If we accept that as true,
schools have an unbelievable opportunity

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to not only change what happens
within their own walls,

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but to spill out into society
and affect change within all of us.

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So tonight I am advocating
for the express inclusion of failure

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into all schools curriculum
at each and every level.

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So what does that look like?

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It's not as if I'm asking my teachers

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to give a test or material
they haven't covered yet,

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but there are ways
we can intensely provide

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experiences for our students,

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to both know and grow from failure.

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Let me give you an example of a person
whom I think is on a right track.

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His name is Edward Burger.

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He's a professor of mathematics
at Williams College.

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Professor Burger tells his students

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that if they want to earn an A,
they must fail regularly,

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because he bases 5% of the final grade
on the quality of their failure.

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They must disclose, accept, discuss,
and reflect upon each failure.

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I love this practice because it encourages
creativity and risk-taking.

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And don't we need more of both of those
in the world in which we live in today?

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This world is aching
for innovators and innovations.

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When I think along those lines,

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I think about some aspects of our world

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that wouldn't be here
without some form of failure,

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like the engineer at 3M, who was trying
to create a super strong adhesive,

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but instead got just the opposite,

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an adhesive that barely stuck
and could easily be lifted off,

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and post-it notes were born.

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Or Alexander Fleming, who was working
in his lab one night,

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and before he left,

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he forgot to properly clean
the bacteria that filled Petri dishes.

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He left town and in return,
he noticed there was mold

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that was blocking
the growth of the bacteria,

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and thereby discovered penicillin.

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Or how about Willson Greatbatch?

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He was trying to create
a heart rhythm recording device

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and he pulled the wrong part
out of a box of equipment.

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And he plugged it in a circuit,

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and he noticed he had created a sound

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that was remarkably similar
to a heartbeat,

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and the pacemaker was invented.

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Today, more than half a million pacemakers
are implanted each and every year.

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Not bad for a mistake.

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When I think along these lines,

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I wish I could snap my fingers

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and make the view of failure change
in all of our minds just like that.

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But I know we have to start small.

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Let me give you an example from my school

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that I hope illustrates this approach.

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It was our first school-wide STEM day,

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and the boys and girls in this
4th-grade class I'll tell you about,

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they were trying to build a zip line
that would drop a marble onto a target

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using a paper cup, paper clips,
tape and string.

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I watched as the boys and girls
built their contraptions,

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and after each miss,
they would huddle together,

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make a change or two,
and then try again.

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When Sofia's group failed
for the fourth time,

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she turned to me and said,

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"Mr. Peters, hashtag,
the struggle is real."

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(Laughter)

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I love that sentiment because it shows me

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that Sofie and her classmates were never
at the end of a failed experiment.

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Rather, they went in the midst
of ongoing struggle.

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They never felt defeated or demeaned
because they couldn't hit their target.

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They were motivated and inspired
to keep on going with the challenge.

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We need to be at the forefront

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of creating these types of opportunities
for our students.

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The sooner they experience
and learn from their own failures,

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the sooner we will have students

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and individuals capable of overcoming
any obstacle in their way

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and handling any adversity
that's thrown in front of them.

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I wish I had a classic
Hollywood happy ending for you

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about Sofia and her group's efforts,

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but that's just not the case.

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Try as they might, they just couldn't hit
that red and white target.

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I lost track of time,

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I lost track of how many attempts
they made that day,

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and through it all, they didn't approach
anything near success.

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By every accepted definition,
they had failed.

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However, there is hope,
because before I left class that day,

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I watched as Sofia and her group
approached their teacher,

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begging to give up
the recess time the next day.

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These boys and girls were willing
to give up their own free time

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to give the challenge another shot.

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If that's not the definition of success,
then I don't know what is.

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There are many ways that we can provide

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these types of opportunities
for our students,

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but the most important aspect of all
is the attitude with which we,

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the adults and the educators
approach failure.

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At my school, I talk to my teachers
about this concept,

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and ask them to go back to the class,
and to celebrate, share, and learn

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from their failures
and their students' failures.

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Our teachers and students need
the freedom to be fearless risk-takers.

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Too often, needed change in schools,
it's hampered by a lack of money,

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supplies and resources
that are not always easily accessible.

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But this change
doesn't require any of that.

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It simply requires to change
both here and here,

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how you think
and how you feel about failure.

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The other great thing
about this change is that,

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while we can celebrate failure
on a STEM day,

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it doesn't matter
if you're in a 3rd-grade math class,

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or a high-school history class,

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or at master's level course
at the university,

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failure can and must be celebrated,
learned from, shared

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each and every day
in each and every class.

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And we start thinking along those lines.

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We need to start incorporating
the word "yet" into our vocabulary,

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both with our students and with ourselves,

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and with their goals and with our goals,

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as in, "You did not meet
that objective yet,

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but with effort and analysis,
thought and commitment,

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you can overcome any obstacle
and ultimately find success."

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I wish I could stand up in front of you

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and say, "I really hope for your success,

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and I want to hand the world off to you."

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But that's just not the case,
because I want you to know struggle.

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I want you to experience the frustration
of not solving your problem,

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or creating your idea on the first try,

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or the second try,

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or even the fourteenth try.

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I want each and every one of you to fail.

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Fail magnificently. Fail spectacularly.

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Fail gloriously,
mind-blowingly, amazingly.

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Failure is not only an option;

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failure is a necessity
so that you may succeed.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)