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Beautiful Failures
I want to tell you a story about my daughter, my beautiful failure. Every day of her high school life was a struggle. She woke up in the morning and the thought of going to school was like an enormous mountain to climb.
'Nothing will ever be as easy as your school years,' well-meaning adults told her, but I knew for my daughter, and for many kids who have struggled as square pegs trying to make themselves round, this was dead wrong.
When Lucy Clark's daughter graduated from school a 'failure', she started asking questions about the way we measure success. Why is there so much pressure on kids today? Where does it come from? Most importantly, as we seem to be in the grip of an epidemic of anxiety, how can we reduce that pressure?
Beautiful Failures explores, through personal experience and journalistic investigation, a broken education system that fails too many kids and puts terrible pressure on all kids, including those who 'succeed'. It challenges accepted wisdoms about schooling, calls on parents to examine their own expectations, and questions the purpose of education, and indeed the purpose of childhood.
'Nothing will ever be as easy as your school years,' well-meaning adults told her, but I knew for my daughter, and for many kids who have struggled as square pegs trying to make themselves round, this was dead wrong.
When Lucy Clark's daughter graduated from school a 'failure', she started asking questions about the way we measure success. Why is there so much pressure on kids today? Where does it come from? Most importantly, as we seem to be in the grip of an epidemic of anxiety, how can we reduce that pressure?
Beautiful Failures explores, through personal experience and journalistic investigation, a broken education system that fails too many kids and puts terrible pressure on all kids, including those who 'succeed'. It challenges accepted wisdoms about schooling, calls on parents to examine their own expectations, and questions the purpose of education, and indeed the purpose of childhood.
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Published January 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
September 3, 2016
As a teacher and a parent this book strongly resonated with my values. The education system is not about students, it is about results. I think a lot of teachers do care or try to but they are so busy getting the job done it gets lost. They are observed at least once a week with the intent of improving their practice, even though they are university graduates. They have to set goals and improve every week. It is a please explain if the student is not improving followed by a how are you going to get them there. Teachers are under so much pressure. I work with the students with disabilities and over the years I have been asked how we can stop your kids from making our results look bad? What are you doing to get these kids achieve a academically. This book, like much I read about education lately, makes me wonder why I am still teaching. A small chapter at the end on utopian ideals with no clear plan to get there, and yes I understand the difficulties, but I see the good teachers leaving and I dread the future.
July 28, 2016
Clark has compiled a great deal of commentary from many sources into a highly accessible book. This should appeal to many parents and those interested in education. I think there are many parents who would benefit from reading this and taking a look in the mirror. At some points the book is a bit emotive (and I don't blame her) but this may make her argument appear biased. I believe a lot of educators would agree with her sentiments but also, like students, feel trapped within our current system. Most educators care a great deal about their students welfare but feel overloaded by curriculum content and paperwork. The overhaul required is enormous.
November 14, 2019
Lucy Clark articulated a lot of the feelings I have about our secondary school system and validated a lot of what I observe. I've raised the ideas in it with several friends since reading it and have recommended they read it. I've also read sections of it to my 14 year old daughter who "does well" at school but doesn't enjoy much of it at all. What's to be done however? We are so deeply entrenched in this way of teaching and this was of assessing our kids "success" - there are some examples of schools doing it differently in the book but it's hard to see how the status quo will ever be unpicked and replaced, there are so many people who believe in it.
August 15, 2016
Great read. I was one of those kids who was pushed to breaking point by family, relatives and family friends to achieve and excel academically.
If I got 98 out of 100 my Dad would go what happened to the other 2 marks, you should have got 100 out of 100. I swore I will never ever put my kids through that. Lately I found myself doing that and fortunately I came across this book.
Thank you Lucy for opening my eyes. A great read for any parent.
If I got 98 out of 100 my Dad would go what happened to the other 2 marks, you should have got 100 out of 100. I swore I will never ever put my kids through that. Lately I found myself doing that and fortunately I came across this book.
Thank you Lucy for opening my eyes. A great read for any parent.
January 4, 2017
Excellent!!
April 10, 2017
To read again when I have kids.
February 7, 2017
This book is revolutionary. Forget Mao’s Little Red Book or Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Just pick up Lucy Clark’s “Beautiful Failures.” Every parent, every teacher and every principal should read this book.
Our education system is broken and it is failing OUR children. It needs to change. Our expectations need to change. How we measure success needs to change. If our children’s happiness is honestly our goal, then change MUST occur. While written from the perspective of an Australian parent, I think it applies to all first world countries (except Finland of course!).
This book is not only for parents of the square pegs that do not fit into the round holes our society has created, but for the round pegs too. Their fantastic results do not reflect the damage we are inflicting upon our children. Damage that will ultimately lead them into becoming unhappy adults.
I can’t find the right words to express how beautiful and important this book is. Buy it. Borrow it. Whatever you need to do. And make time to read it. It’s that important to your children’s future.
L-J
Three Four Knock on the Door
Independent Children's Bookshop
Our education system is broken and it is failing OUR children. It needs to change. Our expectations need to change. How we measure success needs to change. If our children’s happiness is honestly our goal, then change MUST occur. While written from the perspective of an Australian parent, I think it applies to all first world countries (except Finland of course!).
This book is not only for parents of the square pegs that do not fit into the round holes our society has created, but for the round pegs too. Their fantastic results do not reflect the damage we are inflicting upon our children. Damage that will ultimately lead them into becoming unhappy adults.
I can’t find the right words to express how beautiful and important this book is. Buy it. Borrow it. Whatever you need to do. And make time to read it. It’s that important to your children’s future.
L-J
Three Four Knock on the Door
Independent Children's Bookshop
July 12, 2017
A skilfully written and heartfelt book telling of how our results-driven education system is leaving many students in its wake. This book will resonate with every student, parent and teacher who struggles with the current cookie-cutter education system. There are some outstanding examples of schools working with children and parents to ensure a well-rounded education, and the results are positively staggering. If it can be done in a few schools, why not in all schools?
If the people responsible for our education system had the courage to think outside the box and implement a more inclusive arrangement, we may just be surprised by the results.
If the people responsible for our education system had the courage to think outside the box and implement a more inclusive arrangement, we may just be surprised by the results.
January 9, 2018
This was a really good book - an insightful and engaging investigation into the current school systems, both in Australia and worldwide, and what impact both these, and our ideas regarding education as a parent, have on our kids. My only quibble is that I did pick it up with an expectation that it would have some answers and tips for me in choosing a high school for my son, but I didn't quite get that. Unfortunately, the author knows what is broken, but due to the current educational situation as described in the book, there wasn't any means to help fix it completely.....yet!!!
July 29, 2016
Highly recommend for parents and workers in child/family sector. Read it and am re-reading again straight away with a highlighter. Its that important.
March 9, 2017
A really important book that every parent should read (preferably before your children start school).
January 1, 2020
Every teacher and parent should read this book.
October 21, 2017
The author of “Beautiful Failures”, Lucy Clark has done a commendable job of insightfully presenting the problems associated with contemporary education systems in general. Sadly, many leaders of education, who are in decision- making positions, are not able to see the prevailing systems with this level of breadth and penetration. Hopefully, this book with many references to research revelations will become an eye opener to many educational policy- makers around the world to direct our planet in the right direction with some conscientious efforts. Education, in this book, is viewed broadly through which every human being can become a positive contributor to sustainable social developments, as opposed to narrowly focussing on merely getting employed at the end of a hectic and tiring race. That is, holistic human development into self-actualised individuals should be the goal of education as numerous researchers and philosophers referred to in the book have pointed out, rather than pushing them on a narrow path of one-sided development, devoid of empathy, compassion, wisdom and such multidimensional perspectives. Lucy rightly highlights the negative impacts of highly competitive “one size fits all” environments in which the theory of the survival of the fittest prevails, sacrificing the well-being of all students, including the ones who emerge triumphant through the prevailing system. The key performance indicators, as highlighted, of the existing systems are the rising number of cases of mental illness, suicides, dropouts or disengagements and reliance on drugs and alcohol etc. Thank you, Lucy for raising a voice as a mother, on many concerns shared undoubtedly by numerous other parents around the world. I recommend this book for every educator, at all levels, and parent in order to be insightfully informed of the status quo.
February 1, 2021
Sigh. This book argues that our school system is troubled, flawed, a mess.
Yep. No debate from me.
But the problem is that this book is troubled, flawed, a mess. And most importantly, it is mediocre.
It is absolutely true that schools render our students stressed, too competitive, suffering from mental health concerns, and contemplating suicide.
But is the answer to these problems to disconnect from learning, from standards, from achievement? Yes, play is the strongest methodology we can deploy for learning. But part of what we must enact through educational system is the capacity to manage stress, challenges and yes - failure.
The brittle truth not confronted in this book is that school is about as good as life can get. The workplace is an intense, horrific landmine of bullies, redundancies and attacks on the self. University leaves the competition of schools in the carpark.
Therefore, this conversational - chatty - book has diagnosed 'problems' in Australian education. Yet the 'problems' in families, the home, the workplace, the economy, the lack of leisure, structural ill-health, poor quality food - my list can go on - are once more marginalized through the flaws in the school system.
Sadly, schools are a proxy - and an inelegant one - for the problems confronting contemporary Australia. This book shows some of those problems, but does not offer solutions.
Yep. No debate from me.
But the problem is that this book is troubled, flawed, a mess. And most importantly, it is mediocre.
It is absolutely true that schools render our students stressed, too competitive, suffering from mental health concerns, and contemplating suicide.
But is the answer to these problems to disconnect from learning, from standards, from achievement? Yes, play is the strongest methodology we can deploy for learning. But part of what we must enact through educational system is the capacity to manage stress, challenges and yes - failure.
The brittle truth not confronted in this book is that school is about as good as life can get. The workplace is an intense, horrific landmine of bullies, redundancies and attacks on the self. University leaves the competition of schools in the carpark.
Therefore, this conversational - chatty - book has diagnosed 'problems' in Australian education. Yet the 'problems' in families, the home, the workplace, the economy, the lack of leisure, structural ill-health, poor quality food - my list can go on - are once more marginalized through the flaws in the school system.
Sadly, schools are a proxy - and an inelegant one - for the problems confronting contemporary Australia. This book shows some of those problems, but does not offer solutions.
February 5, 2023
I really really struggled with this book.
While I agree that the education system is flawed, the way this book is written seems like a "personal vendetta" towards her daughter's experience. It was also a bit hypocritical, at one stage she says it's rude to acknowledge students that achieve academically and they shouldn't be singled out.
And then she complained that no teacher singled out her daughter for her 'artistic' ability. I feel like you can't have it both ways!!
I found it difficult to finish this book.
While I agree that the education system is flawed, the way this book is written seems like a "personal vendetta" towards her daughter's experience. It was also a bit hypocritical, at one stage she says it's rude to acknowledge students that achieve academically and they shouldn't be singled out.
And then she complained that no teacher singled out her daughter for her 'artistic' ability. I feel like you can't have it both ways!!
I found it difficult to finish this book.
January 14, 2020
Unpacks the major issues with the Australian educational system, and why it is failing our children. Particular emphasis is placed on the issue of stress on our young students and, to a lesser extent, teachers/principals. Takes a look at some different approaches. Similar ideas to a couple of other texts I've read, but Clark's writing style is clear and concise, and this was an easy and informative read.
December 14, 2017
The huscat and I banged heads over this book!! I never realised how competitive he is! Nor how competitiveness is ingrained in school /everyday culture. An important read and emphasises how important a attitude of experience and effort is over purely striving to be the best and tick the boxes. I feel like I got a lot out of this.
January 28, 2019
I am a secondary school teacher, a researcher in the education field and a parent of one academic child and a child with mild autism and anxiety. The book resonated and I empathised with the author’s pain. However, given my experience and interest there was not much that was new to me. It also seemed repetitive, dragging on a bit.
June 10, 2017
Some prescient chapters and analysis on assessment; others simply rehashing the climate around what a professional teacher already confronts on a daily basis.
July 15, 2021
Insightful book on what people can failures and what can be learned from. Some failures will surprise you especially if you are a teacher, shares a lot of what learnt experiences.
July 29, 2017
Highly recommended, especially for those planning to raise a family. Raises serious issues about our education system that has largely remain unchanged for several decades now. Positive ideas are also laid out along with real world examples of schools/countries having the balls to step aside from the status quo as so often the one-size-fits-all curriculum does. Not. Work. Time for change.
February 9, 2017
Interesting, its good to get these ideas out there, just a little repetitive in places, i felt like i wanted to skip pages. but all in all i’m glad i read this book. thank you Lucy.
September 14, 2016
Every parent, every teacher and any person interested in, or concerned about, education and our children should read this book. As soon as I finished it, I wanted to re read it. Lucy Clark has beautifully intertwined personal experience with thorough journalistic investigation and made easy reading of a deep and important subject. Read it, you will not regret it.
January 13, 2017
A must read for any parent. Let's rise up and ask for something better for our kids. Or else move to Finland. Started so many conversations with friends about the dilemma of education in this country which we all face.
July 18, 2016
A must read for those of us who have school aged children - or anyone really with an interest in the education system.
August 1, 2016
Interesting, thought provoking read
September 12, 2016
3.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews