Thank you for exploring Risk. Fail. Rise.!

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In this sample, you will find:

  • Introduction
  • Essay 1: Mistakes Cost More for Some
  • Lesson 7: Types of Mistakes, Grades 2–12

From the Introduction by Colleen Cruz:

A mistake happens by accident: I meant to turn in the attendance list, but I forgot. A wrongdoing or sin happens mindfully: I knew it was wrong to take home the toilet paper from the teacher’s bathroom, but I did it anyway. It is very rare for someone to accidentally end up stealing. Just because the active party might be filled with regret in both accidental and intentional mistakes, the rationale and ways to repair and grow are very different. It seems to me that one of the (many) reasons there is so much shame and denial attached to garden variety mistakes is that too often purposeful wrongdoing and mistakes are conflated.

Even though those terms are often used interchangeably, I want to bring light to our unconsciousness around some mistakes in schools and so will focus on mistakes in their accidental form. Mindful wrongdoing will need to go in another book. In the essays and lessons in this book, when we talk about mistakes, we’ll concentrate on errors, missteps, and blunders—situations where the teacher or student had the intention to do one thing but ended up doing something else.

The more aware we are of why we make certain mistakes and what we can do to improve situations once we’ve made them, the more effective our teaching and learning will be.