embrace

The other day - not this one, the other one - I taught a class of elementary school kids. Toward the end of class, with about 5 minutes left, I was out of stuff to do. In order to burn the last 5 minutes, I had the idea to set up a reading competition between the class. The left side of the room, 6 kids, against the right side of the room, 6 kids. Whichever class read through the 5 page story fastest, paragraph by paragraph, would win.

Upon announcing this proclamation, the left side of the room erupted in protest. They were none too happy with this arrangement. I asked what the problem was. "They are smart," one of them said, pointing to the right side. "We're stupid."

What could I say to that, really? Were they wrong? Well, I wouldn't designate any kid as stupid, but even at the time I realized that perhaps the right side of the class was loaded with better readers. But hey, I had 5 minutes to kill here, so the games must go on.

The right side went first, and read through the story flawlessly in a minute and a half. The left side started out, and started out well. Then, about halfway through it, they abandoned all pretense for speed and began reading the story in goofy voices. Each kid laughed their way through each paragraph in a unique way. They ended up taking well over 2 minutes.

When they finished, I told them that if they had kept trying their hardest they could've won. They all looked at me and kinda shrugged, as if to say, "C'mon, man. They're the smart kids. We were dead to rites."

At the time I was kinda annoyed, but looking back now I admire that attitude. They knew they had no chance, and instead of risking disappointment they took matters into their own hands and just had a couple minutes of fun. In a hyper-competitive culture like Korea, that attitude will serve them well, I think.

Learn to embrace failure.