Key points:
Throughout my education, I have always been frustrated by busy work–the kind of homework that felt like an obligatory exercise rather than a meaningful learning experience. What puzzled me even more was the stark difference between K-12 education and higher education in this regard.
In college, assignments were purposeful, designed to deepen my understanding of the material rather than simply reinforce rote memorization. These assignments provided valuable opportunities to fail, seek help, and ultimately grow from the experience. Unfortunately, this kind of productive struggle is largely absent from K-12 education, leaving students ill-prepared with the mental resilience required to learn and adapt in college and beyond.
The issue is not just that K-12 education lacks challenging work; it’s that the system actively discourages failure. Homework is often designed to be simple, easily completed, and graded primarily for completion rather than mastery. This approach fosters a culture where students equate success with immediate correctness rather than with the process of learning. In contrast, the ungraded, complex assignments I encountered in college allowed me to struggle through difficult concepts, ask questions, and refine my understanding in a way that simply wasn’t possible in high school. Worse still, the pressure to get everything right in K-12, combined with the increasing competitiveness of academic environments, has contributed to widespread cheating, an issue that has only been exacerbated by advancements in generative AI and online learning.
In undergraduate courses, particularly in STEM fields, weekly homework assignments often required upwards of 12 hours of effort. Whether it was coding a project or working through intricate physics problems, I regularly found myself stuck. This wasn’t a sign of failure; it was an essential part of learning. If I couldn’t figure something out on my own, I had resources at my disposal: office hours, teaching assistants, or discussions with peers. These assignments weren’t just practice. They were designed to stretch my limits, to force me to engage deeply with the material rather than skim through a textbook for quick answers.
A common theme in my college coursework was the emphasis on application and difficulty. I can’t recall a single homework assignment that was easier than a test question. The homework was intentionally challenging, often requiring problem-solving beyond what was covered in lectures. It was assumed that students would struggle. The struggle was the entire point. Unlike high school assignments, which often consisted of repetitive, simple problems that could be completed in under an hour, college homework demanded creative thinking, persistence, and resilience. These assignments weren’t about getting a perfect score; they were about refining my ability to approach complex problems–an invaluable skill in any field.
This experience stood in stark contrast to my K-12 education, where everything was graded, and the expectation was to get as many correct answers as possible. The emphasis on grades instead of growth fostered a fear of failure, making students hesitant to take risks. Because failure was so rare in primary and secondary education, many students experienced their first true academic challenges in college, often with devastating effects. Those who had never learned how to struggle through difficult material suddenly found themselves unable to cope, leading to a general sense of academic unpreparedness.
What happens when we give students opportunities to struggle and fail productively? We create better learners. Students develop a more realistic understanding of their own abilities and begin to appreciate the process of learning rather than just the outcome. A teacher’s role is not just to impart knowledge but also to teach students how to learn. By introducing challenging assignments that require deep engagement, teachers can help students build the mental resilience necessary for future academic and professional success.
This shift is particularly important given the increasing competitiveness of education. In a world where high school GPAs are inflated and students feel immense pressure to achieve perfection, we must reframe failure as a necessary and valuable part of learning rather than something to be avoided at all costs. The first time a student struggles shouldn’t be in their freshman-year college calculus course; it should happen much earlier.
How can educators integrate productive failure into their teaching? One of the most effective strategies is to assign difficult, application-based homework that correlates directly with classroom learning. Instead of grading these assignments for accuracy, they should be graded for effort or completion. This removes the fear of failure while still encouraging students to engage deeply with the material.
Imagine a high school math class where, instead of assigning a dozen repetitive practice problems, the teacher includes a few complex multi-step problems that require students to think critically. When students struggle with these problems, they should be encouraged to ask questions and work through their difficulties in class. The goal is not to punish students for making mistakes but to help them recognize gaps in their understanding and develop the problem-solving skills needed to overcome them.
For educators concerned about limited class time, even small changes can make a difference. A simple way to introduce productive struggle is to incorporate a “challenge problem” into existing homework assignments. This doesn’t require a complete overhaul of the curriculum; it just means providing students with opportunities to test their limits. These questions should be difficult enough to make students think, but not so overwhelming that they become discouraged. Over time, as students encounter these challenges regularly, they will build confidence in their ability to tackle difficult problems independently.
Another approach is to dedicate class time to reviewing these challenging problems collaboratively. There is immense value in the “eureka moment” that comes when a teacher explains the missing step that allows a difficult problem to click into place. When students experience this firsthand, they learn that struggling through a problem isn’t a sign of failure–it’s a fundamental part of the learning process.
Implementing failure in the classroom isn’t about making school harder for the sake of difficulty–it’s about making learning more meaningful. By embracing this shift, educators can help students develop the perseverance and intellectual resilience they need to thrive, not just in college, but in every aspect of their lives.
