Why we feel so bad making mistakes and how to work through it.
I have seen this happen so many times. I am in Spanish class, my students have been working great and I think they are ready for a challenge so I bring in an activity slightly more challenging than usual. I tell them in advance that there will be some words they do not know, but not to worry. That is ok. They do not have to understand every single word. We get to work. Even after I told them what to expect and to be ok with it, 80% of them have an emotional crash. They get upset, frustrated, feel helpless or feel like crying. When I check their understanding, I see they have understood way more than I had expected. I am proud of them. They feel bad. Why is this? We want to do it perfect and we fall apart when it does not happen. As humans. we do not like the feeling of being at a disadvantage. We do not want to feel stupid, left out or less than. So our mind reacts as if we were somehow being threatened. Alarms go off inside us, we feel uncomfortable because w...