“One thing is to make a mistake and not learn from it, not to return to it, quite another thing is to make a mistake and then figure out what happened and what can be learned from it,” said Vitalija Latožaitė, head of the Vytautas Magnus University (VDU) Lyceum “Sokratus,” at a press conference this week.
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“(Parents should – BNS) talk with the child, not scold for a worse grade, but ask why it happened and how I can help you, how each of us can help,” she said.
Moreover, according to her, not only students but also teachers should dare to make mistakes.
A “Spinter Research” survey conducted on behalf of the VDU Lyceum “Sokratus” shows that more than a quarter of Lithuanian residents say they grew up in a school environment where making mistakes was not allowed, and about one in seven was punished for mistakes.
Currently, 71% of residents would allow their school-age children to make mistakes or at least partially tolerate their mistakes.
Furthermore, the results show that society quite firmly agrees with the idea that a mistake at school should become a learning opportunity rather than a punishment.
ISM board member and economics professor Modestas Gelbūda emphasized that psychological safety, which allows a person to be themselves, is extremely important in encouraging both children and adults to take on new activities and learn new fields.
“Can he be himself in a certain context with what he knows, with what he doesn’t know, and comfortably, pleasantly, and comfortably seek new knowledge?” said M. Gelbūda.
“One of the essential definitions of learning for me is trying to do what you don’t know how to do. If you do what you know, it means you are not improving. And if you want to gain knowledge, you have to do what you don’t know, and that naturally means that something will fail and that this is simply the path of improvement,” emphasized the professor.
According to M. Gelbūda, the country’s competitiveness also depends on people’s courage to undertake new initiatives.
“Entrepreneurs make mistakes, those creating new products make mistakes, there is a lot of data about this. Those creating innovations in the public sector also face resistance and sometimes make mistakes,” he said. “So we really need a new approach to mistakes, and I think this is a necessary condition for both education in general and our country as a whole to move forward.”
“What’s wrong with repeating a course?”
According to Rytis Laurinavičius, co-founder of “Omnisend” and chairman of the board of “Education Number One,” mistakes should be viewed more openly not only when talking about students and their results but the entire education system.
He said that changes in education cannot be decided by specialists sitting at a table but must be tested in real conditions.
“One of the things that ‘Education Number One’ strongly advocates for is pilot projects. Currently, various changes and reforms are made when smart people gather at a table, decide how things will be, and implement it across Lithuania,” said R. Laurinavičius. “It never works that way because then you leave no room for error, or the error costs a lot.”
“If you do it through pilot projects, initially in a school, maybe in a municipality and so on, you can really see the mistakes, correct them, and then do it properly across Lithuania,” he assured.
Moreover, according to the chairman of “Education Number One,” a problematic attitude toward mistakes is also revealed by the government’s continuous attempts to lower the bar for learning achievements.
He said one example is allowing students who did not pass the tenth-grade exam to continue studying in grades 11–12 instead of giving them the opportunity to repeat the course.
“We allow mistakes, we allow failing the tenth-grade exam completely even at the basic level and still moving on to grades 11–12, instead of saying: ‘Look, they made a mistake, it’s okay, and what’s wrong with repeating a course?’” said R. Laurinavičius.
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“Today it is a stigma; as a system, we cannot even allow the thought that a child will stay in the same grade for a second year, but basically, this is the same correction of a mistake. They get feedback, correct the mistake, and continue in life prepared,” he said.
BNS wrote that in mid-July, the Seimas, on the initiative of social democrats, completely repealed the requirement adopted in 2022 and supposed to take effect on September 1 this year, that tenth graders must get at least a grade of four to obtain basic education.
These amendments to the Education Law were vetoed by President Gitanas Nausėda, who proposed postponing their entry into force until September 2029. Parliamentarians gathered for an extraordinary session at the beginning of the week approved this proposal.
Currently, the PUPP is mandatory for all tenth graders, but its results have so far had no impact on promotion to a higher grade or obtaining a certificate of education.
From September 2029, students who do not achieve the minimum grade of four will not obtain basic education.
Punishments are less remembered and given by younger people
According to the survey data, 28% of respondents said that making mistakes was not allowed while they were studying at school, and about one in seven respondents indicated that they were punished for mistakes. Another 14% said that although mistakes were not tolerated, they were not punished for them.
Meanwhile, 49% of residents said they felt that making mistakes was allowed, 34% of respondents said they could make mistakes and were not punished for them, and 15% said that although making mistakes was allowed, they were still punished for mistakes. Another 23% of respondents did not remember or could not answer about their experience.
The survey shows that today the attitude of residents toward children’s mistakes is much more favorable: when asked if they would allow a school-age child to make mistakes, 71% of respondents said they would allow it or at least partially tolerate mistakes.
Fifty percent of respondents said they allow or would allow a child to make mistakes because mistakes can be learned from, 21% would tolerate mistakes but very limitedly.
The survey also showed that women more often than men say they allow or would allow a child to make mistakes because mistakes can be learned from.
The survey data also reveal differences between age groups: the youngest, 18–25 years old, least often remember being punished for mistakes at school – such experience was reported by 24%. Among 26–35-year-olds, 29% were punished for mistakes, among 36–45-year-olds – 26%.
Meanwhile, in older age groups, this share exceeds 30%: 31% of 46–55-year-olds and the same percentage of those aged 56 and older remember being punished for mistakes.
Moreover, the youngest residents not only least often remember being punished themselves but also most often support the possibility for children to learn from mistakes: 58% of 18–25-year-old respondents say they would allow their school-age child to make mistakes because mistakes can be learned from. Among 26–35-year-olds, 48% think so, 36–45-year-olds – 50%, 46–55-year-olds – 56%, and among those 56 and older – 45%.
In the 18–25 age group, not a single respondent said they would not allow a child to make mistakes and would punish them for a mistake. However, in other age groups, the share of residents who think so is small.
The national survey on attitudes toward children’s mistakes was conducted from July 18 to 28 this year. A total of 1,017 Lithuanian residents aged 18 to 75 across Lithuania were surveyed. The survey was conducted using combined quantitative market research methods, applying quota sampling.
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