A challenge with K-12 education in the US is not teaching kids how to failure.  I have heard stories about Little League teams where everyone gets a trophy, where there are no losers.

And what happens when the student applies to colleges, and they get turned down.  They fail.

Even the best of students may get turned down by a Harvard, UC Berkeley, Stanford, etc. UCLA had 82,300 freshmen and transfer applications for about 7000 spots.

And all of a sudden, your little Prince or Princess who has heard so much about how they walk on water, is faced with being turned down.  Of having failed.

And as a parent of this young adult, you get to help them work through this.  To explain that not everyone is a winner all the time.  That Life is like a bowl of Cherries, mostly sweet with a few pits.  Some advice I got from one of my early bosses was it was not just important to get up when you fall down, but also how quickly you get up.

I also like the story about how babies learn to walk.  They learn through lots and lots of failures, till they finally figure out how to walk.

Being a parent can be challenging!

Labels: college admissions