A fellow traveler, Dave Eng, posted a link in Facebook to his Video Fired Up Fiero, 9 minutes and worth watching.
Dave called for Fiero and Flow to drive learning; with them we engage learners and motivate them to put in the hard work of learning. Fiero is the feeling when you have accomplished something momentous. You ever watch a soccer player after scoring a goal, jumping in the air, raising her arms, and yelling because she cannot contain her joy? That’s Fiero.
Flow is that feeling of timelessness when you are doing something and lose track of everything but what you are trying to accomplish. It’s when I tell my wife, “I’ll just be five more minutes” and when the five minutes have passed I’m amazed she’s angry because it hasn’t, in fact, been five minutes, it’s been two hours.
Dave was wrong.
We don’t need just two more F-words in education, we need four F-words.
We also need Failure, and we need Fun. Without the chance of failing, especially relatively risk-free failing, there is no Flow, and there is no great satisfaction of achievement. And without Fun, why bother? Fun and enjoyment are foundational to flow.
I’m thinking we need to find ways to add Fun, Failure, Flow, and Fiero to education. Or the kids are just going to continue giving school the one F-word we really don’t want.