Some time ago now, I found myself for the first time having to write an extended thesis in order to fulfill my requirements for advancement to 4th Dan. While this blog isn't the place to share that particular document in its entirety, I do think it is appropriate for me to share pieces of it here. The basic topic of the the thesis was testing, and here I would like to share my thoughts on what too often seems to be a taboo word and a taboo subject in the realms of martial arts tests: Failure.
Fear of Failure
The
possibility of failure must be present in any test, or it cannot truly be
called a test. Beyond the possibility
of failure, however, a good test includes the fear of failure as
well. Fear in and of itself is not a bad
thing. It can, in fact, be a powerful
motivator towards positive change. We
become stronger through facing our fears, not by ignoring or attempting to
remove them. The trend today, however,
seems to be towards removing any perceived unpleasantness from our young
people’s experiences. Columnist Tucker Carlson writes:
Not all of life’s experiences are
positive. Many are downright unpleasant,
even painful, and always have been.
What’s new is the attempt to prohibit those experiences.1
In so doing, we are doing our children harm. One of the established needs for testing to
fill is the need to confront and understand our weaknesses. If we do not confront our fears, and in
particular the fear of failure, we can never truly face or come to terms with
these weaknesses. In short, fear is a
necessary human motivator, and the fear of failure is a necessary component of
a good test.
The fear
of failure has been a trait common to all people throughout history. It stems from the life and death experiences
of our distant ancestors, the so called ‘dangers of the hunt’, in which failing
meant serious injury or even death.2 Later, as Rites of Passage became more
formalized and controlled, failure to succeed in meeting the objective of the
rite meant denial of acceptance into the adult community. With failure came consequences, and it
was these consequences of which people were fearful. Today there is a trend towards lessening or
complete removal of consequences. At one
time, failure at tests in schools meant a dire combination of consequences for
the child. At school, the failure would,
at the least, result in a loss of points toward an overall score, lowering the
student’s chance of passing a subject overall.
At home, parental disapproval was virtually guaranteed. These and other consequences worked together
to ensure that the student would not want to repeat the process. Today, however, the consequences are often
removed or lessened. Parents more and
more often confront teachers over failing grades, rather than support them.
Schools themselves allow students to take tests as many times as they need to
in order to pass, where the end result is no consequence for the initial
failure, and in fact a reward of a passing grade in the end. With waning support from the community and
families, schools are beginning to find out that the consequences they do try
to implement have little effect on the students. The fear of consequences is not reinforced
outside of the schools, and the fear of failure is beginning to disappear.
Attempts to combat this trend are not working as planned.
We have
discussed the fact that with failure must come consequences. Removal of these consequences is a
problem. It is, however, only half of
the problem. Attempts to recreate some
sense of a fear of failure have been centered solely on consequences, making
them consistently harsher. So-called ‘zero tolerance’ policies are being put in
place in schools and places of employment throughout society, in which failure
is automatically coupled with harsh consequences, and repeated failure is
accompanied with immediate removal. In these situations, failure is the end of
the road. Consequences must be in place, true, but they must serve as
motivators towards positive change. This
cannot happen if the consequences of failure are not coupled with opportunity.
Failure must not be viewed as the end of the road, but the beginning. We often will learn more from our failures
than from our successes, but only if the opportunity for future success exists.
People who fail to succeed at a
test, life experience, or other situation, must be actively encouraged to face,
understand, and accept the consequences of their failure, rather than simply be
left to those consequences without further assistance. In this way, and only in this way, can we
fully prepare them to face the test again, hopefully with a different result.
Testing a second time without first facing the initial consequences
accomplishes little or nothing in the long run.
We do not encourage success by removing the consequences of failure, nor
do we encourage success by forcing people to deal with those consequences
unaided. Lao Tzu tells us: “In pursuing
their affairs, people often fail when they are close to success.”3 This occurs when people are left to face the
consequences of failure with no help and do not recognize the chance to correct
the initial mistakes they made. Aikido
instructor and author Kensho Furuya states:
We do not fail because we make
mistakes, we fail because we do not make mistakes correctly.
The common person turns his mistake
into a bigger mistake. The wise man
turns his mistake into an advantage.4
We must encourage students to accept the consequences of
their failure, but never to accept the failure itself. We must help them to see that failure is not
the end of the road, but merely a step along the longer road to success.
A good
test is one that has consequences for failure.
A complete test, however, includes a mechanism for the test-taker to
come to acceptance of the consequences of failure and confront the test again.
We must recreate a sense of danger associated with failure. Without that sense, without that fear, there
is ultimately nothing learned from failure.
It becomes an acceptable result.
This cannot be allowed. We must push students beyond their failures.
By forcing them to confront the consequences of their failures, we force
them to accept the fear of a second failure, but also to now work through that fear
to a point where failure is no longer an acceptable outcome. We must force today’s students to confront their
fear of failure.
In some instances, the fear
of failure has been too far removed from the martial arts tests of today. This happens when students see everyone pass
every test and assume that passing the test is automatic. The basic concept is that no one who is not
ready to be tested should be allowed to test, and therefore everyone
passes. There is nothing wrong with this
idea as a concept, but many time ideal concepts are difficult to translate into the "real world", and when instructors do not warn students and parents that the possibility of
failure is very real, or when they allow unprepared students to ‘slide by,’
problems begin to appear. Martial arts
instructors today have been accused of ‘giving away’ and even ‘selling’ belts. These phrases imply that the belts given to students
were never actually earned through passing a challenging test. We must strive never to allow ourselves to do
this, or we remove a critical component of a complete test.
The martial arts test must remain a test with clear
and tangible consequences for failure. Rather than serving as a method of
punishment, these consequences exist in order to drive students towards
positive changes. Failure in a martial
arts test will result from a lack of mental, physical, or spiritual preparation
and development. Any one of these can
cause the failure, but all failures of the martial arts test result in one
major consequence: no promotion to the next level. This consequence has a tangible component in
that the student who fails the test does not receive a new belt, stripe, or
certification, but perhaps it is the more intangible results that really make
the difference. As martial artists
advance in rank, new levels of authority, status, privilege, and responsibility
are (or at least should be) conferred. The student who fails his
or her test will find that his or her own levels in each of these areas remain
the same. Nothing is taken away from the
student, but nothing is gained either.
It is the lack of advancement in these intangible areas that students
should fear most, and this then becomes the driving force for positive
development. Instructors will fuel this
motivation by helping students learn from their failures, thereby teaching the
next generation to confront these failures and use them as motivation rather
than to simply accept them. Students
learn to have a healthy amount of fear of failure, but are constantly
encouraged to confront and overcome that fear.
Only once they have done so can it be said that they have truly earned
the status that comes with advancement in rank.
Kick. Punch. Easy Stuff.
1. Carlson, Tucker. (2002). “Go Ahead, Hurt My
Feelings,” Reader’s Digest, August,
p. 46.
2.
‘Dangers of the Hunt’ concept taken
from Pinnock, Don. (1996). “Gangs Guns, and Rites of
Passage,” Conflict Resolution Notes, Fall p. 8.
3. Lao Tzu, trans. by Victor H. Mair. (1990). Tao
Te Ching New York:
Bantam Book), p. 35.
4. Furuya, Kensho. (1996). Kodo: Ancient Ways Santa
Clarita, CA: Ohara Publications, Inc., p. 139, and p. 144.
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