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Embracing a Culture as a

Stepping Stone for Success

By Peter Cook, Supervisor of Instructional Technology and Data Management,
Richard Hayzler, Principal, and Michael Portas, Principal, Pequannock Township
School District

Your tolerance for failure This growth mindset will connect most supported, our task as leaders is to
could well define the specifically to instruction and assess- ensure that the culture of our building
impacts the culture of our classrooms,
ment, professional development, and
degree of excellence the implementation of meaningful which directly impacts the mindset of
you, your school, or any technology. our students.
organization can achieve. Encouraging failure as a means to The natural inclination of any person is
discovering success might sound
to resist failure and to worry, “What if
Implicit in this statement is a definition counterintuitive, bordering on outright my teacher/administrator/parent/coach
that failure is a temporary condition, stupid. And yet, we are discovering doesn’t like what I’m doing?” No matter
provided you have the right mindset. that the keys to a growth mindset — our role, our response to failure dictates
Call it failure, perhaps. The difference persistence, grit, mental toughness the willingness of others to take risks.
between hard and fast failure and fail- — all connect back to the individual’s If we respond to an incorrect response
ure is akin to saying “I’m not good at ability to manage failure. Those with “That’s a great wrong answer,”
math” and “I’m not good at math, yet.” individuals tend to adopt the culture “Right neighborhood, wrong street,” “I
We propose an approach to school of the organization that surrounds hear what you’re saying, but we need
culture that embraces the risk of failure them; given that our client base is a to dig deeper,” or some other variation
as an inherent component of growth. generation that is insulated more than of inclusive feedback, we help to imbue

Educational Viewpoints -11- Spring 2018