j.k. rowling on the fringe benefits of failure

as someone who has experienced his fair share of failure and who is in a vocation that includes “failure” as one of its benchmarks or signposts from which all else is judged on an ascending scale, this post comes as something of a welcome antidote, acknowledging as it does, not only the presence of failure but more importantly, the salient and positive features of failure.

for years i have advocated in my classrooms the tolerance of failure as a point of departure. brian eno’s maxim - “honour thy error as a hidden intention” has driven my approach to recognizing in my student’s errors a point from which we can collectively assemble a knowing or an understanding. in that way we don’t see a mistake, or an error or a failing as negative but rather as a place along the journey of learning that informs by default. in that way the error has at least as much value as the “correct” answer and can function as a step on the way towards the solution.

j.k. rowling is the internationally-renowned author of the harry potter series. her success is legendary, as is her “rags-to-riches” story . progressing from poverty to multi-millionaire status in five years, rowling has a unique insight into the worlds of the truly poor and the truly wealthy drawing on her experiences both as an adult and as a child.
when asked to speak before what could arguably be the most privileged group of students on the north american continent, rowling wrote a cracker of a piece entitled “the fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imagination”.

here then is j.k. rowling’s address to this year’s graduating class at harvard . . .