A little while ago I had a really interesting conversation with a teacher-friend who I really respect. They were telling me about a new way of thinking by educators to do with, well, struggling. Struggling with problems.

It’s been found that children learn better, and also gain more satisfaction within themselves when they have failed at something – and then achieve it. For example, doing a maths problem and getting it right the first time gives very little feeling of satisfaction. But doing a problem and really having to puzzle at it, to attempt and fail, and fail again, and fail some more – and then get it right gives an enormous feeling of satisfaction. And so teachers are now focusing on the struggle. On the failing. And then the succeeding.

This got me thinking.

First, I smiled as I realised this happens in every music lesson I teach. I can see it in a drum lesson. I’ll give the class a group of patterns, and watch children try and stuff it up. Try again, and make a different mistake. And it may take a dozen goes, or a dozen lessons to get it right. And then I see the kid’s face as they succeed. They beam. They light up. And interestingly, it’s not necessarily the bright ones that get it right the quickest either – as drumming involves being ‘in your body’, and co-ordination, and aural skills – and then perhaps some smarts. But in that order.

Second, I was sad for the kids I see who aren’t confident enough to start the process. The try-and-fail loop that needs to happen. And it made me wonder about how I could make things easier for the kids who are in this boat to feel they can try this in a lesson I’m giving.

Third, it made me realise that as an adult, very few of us actually do this ourselves. If we can’t do something the first time, we generally stop it. Or stop it after a while. And yet we expect kids to do it all the time.

All good thinks to think, I think. And now, hopefully, you’re thinking them too.