The logic of putting it there has always eluded me, and it was a deal breaker when I was looking for my house. You water heater WILL fail. It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when. It needs to be in a place where damage can be minimized. There needs to be a plan for failure. And the pan is only a good plan if you catch it right away, which is unlikely if it is in the attic.
On Wednesday of this week, the Verizon network was down for over 8 hours. For many, this was a simple inconvenience, with the phone screen saying SOS for most of the day. For a few, it may have meant an inability to call for emergency services or run their business properly. But the issue I found the most interesting was experienced by some people whose cars were apparently tied to the Verizon network. Several Y members who owned Teslas were left unable to start their car. Having your car paired with your phone seems convenient until a failure occurs. Then, it is important to have a manual work-around (and I honestly have a hard time believing one doesn't exist).
The same is true of students. They will fail. It's not a matter of if, but when.
I don't mean that every student will experience a failing grade, although some will. Failure means something different to everyone. But they will fail in some way, and it will vary among different students. There are students for whom a D is no big deal, but they feel morose if they lose a basketball game. There are students for whom a C+ is a slap in the face. I even had a student once who stood in my classroom screaming, "I failed. I failed!" if she made anything below a 96%. While she obviously had deeper issues that would interest a team of Viennese specialists, I had to be prepared to deal with fallout whenever I put in a grade. Otherwise, I would lose all of my class time to the inevitable melt down.
So, teachers, here's my advice. Put some thought now into how you will handle failure with your students. You can't possibly anticipate everything, but there are some pretty common ones you can expect. Do you teach juniors and seniors? Some will not get into their first choice college, and at least a couple won't even make it into their safety school. They are going to be understandably sad; but you can't turn your class into a therapy session. What will you do? Do you teach freshmen? The homecoming dance may be their first experience of rejection from a romantic interest. You might remember how devastating that is. How do you plan to keep it from derailing everything you have planned for your students that day?
The bad news is there is no way to avoid this. Students will fail at something. And, to be honest, that is a good and healthy thing. You want them to experience failure and learn coping skills when the stakes are low. Kids build resilience for adulthood by taking acceptable risks and learning to bounce back when things go sideways.
The good news is that you are not the sole source of help for them. You have have resources. As you make a plan, think through which members of your school community might be helpful. You might have a great relationship with that child's parents and make a quick call. You might have a school counselor who can help. Your special needs teachers can teach you some tricks. Most schools have some "Barbara Howard" type teacher that just has the touch for calming kids down. Think about those resources as you anticipate the issues you might encounter with students.
You will handle different situations and different students in different ways, of course. Just don't let the fact that failure happens take you by surprise. If you do, you will react rather than act, and you won't react in the most effective ways (which will then make a vicious circle because you will feel like you have failed.
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