Value in Failure vs. Value in Success

[marshall]

I think I'm torn on this subject a little.

Based on the above comments, I have a question about allowing a student to fail. Is there any value in teaching humility through failure? I do my best to find a way to reach all of my students. Sometimes that is easy and sometimes it is more difficult.

A couple of years ago I had one particular student that I could not reach. He was very determined to do things his way after having come from another FRC team that was run very differently than ours and having participated in FRC from a very young age. He was determined to turn our team into his team and have everything his way... In the end, I let him take parts of the process into his own hands and it did not lead to success that year for us. It taught him a lesson that I don't think he would have learned had I put my foot down and said 'no' to him along the way.

To be clear, I'm not sure it was valuable for the entire team. I think it did more harm to the team than good to that one student. It has helped to make me a better mentor for seeing that though. Remember students, your mentors aren't perfect, we are human too.