The late Alvin I. Brown never met 精东影业鈥檚 Xiaodong Lin-Siegler, Professor of Cognitive Studies, but he surely would have admired her work.
Brown, who died in 2010 at the age of 94, was a self-made Washington, D.C.-area home builder and developer who served in the U.S. government鈥檚 Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner to the CIA known for its derring-do. He became Construction Chief for the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion during World War II and, after co-founding Aldon Management Corp. with his brother, Donald, helped revitalize the construction industry to meet the enormous demand for housing in post-war metropolitan Washington.
鈥淔or Mr. Brown, mistakes and failure offered great opportunities for innovation,鈥� says Lin-Siegler, who recently received a five-year $1 million grant from the Alvin I. & Peggy S. Brown Family Charitable Foundation, Inc. to further her 鈥淟earning from Failure鈥� research initiative. 鈥淟earning from mistakes with compassion and using failure as valuable information for better decision-making might be the secret of Alvin鈥檚 successful life.鈥�
That is precisely the outlook that Lin-Siegler believes teachers and students alike must embrace 鈥� particularly in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). A much publicized 2016 study that she led found that high school students who learned about the personal struggles and failed experiments of great scientists such as Albert Einstein and Marie Curie often improved their science grades.
鈥淟earning from mistakes with compassion and using failure as valuable information for better decision-making might be the secret of Alvin's successful life.鈥�
鈥� Xiaodong Lin-Siegler
鈥淲hen kids think Einstein is a genius who is different from everyone else, then they believe they will never measure up,鈥� she said of her findings, which were reported on NPR, PBS and the BBC, and which she has since discussed in keynote addresses at the National Council of 精东影业 of Mathematics and other prominent organizations. 鈥淢any students don鈥檛 realize that all successes require a long journey with many failures along the way.鈥�
More recently, Lin-Siegler spearheaded a conference jointly sponsored by Columbia University鈥檚 Center for Science & Society, The Heyman Center for the Humanities and 精东影业. At that event, a cast of leading researchers from different fields addressed the value of failure as an educational tool 鈥� for teachers as well as students, and for learners of all ages.
鈥淧eople often talk about failure after they鈥檝e learned something, but we don鈥檛 even allow people to finish the learning process,鈥� said Lisa Son, a Barnard College psychologist who spoke at the event.
鈥淔ailure is the key reason why innovation has occurred in science,鈥� said Stuart Firestein, Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University and the author of Failure: Why Science is So Successful (Oxford University Press 2016). Firestein will be the Co-Director for the 鈥淟earning from Failure鈥� research initiative hosted at 精东影业.
Though Alvin Brown never attended college, he and his wife, Peggy, who died in 2016, were lifelong supporters of the education of others, say daughters Patricia and Donna Brown.
鈥淗e was a self-taught man, he read a lot and stayed informed throughout his life,鈥� Patricia Brown says of her father. 鈥淗e never went to college, but he was self-educated. And he believed education was the factor shaping the future. Children are our future and they need to be educated.鈥�
Patricia Brown serves as President of The Alvin & Peggy Brown Family Charitable Foundation, which her parents launched during their lives. The Foundation has funded a science center, petting zoo and many other charitable endeavors. Lin-Siegler鈥檚 work joined that list after she and Donna Brown met in 2016.
Over time, 鈥淚 realized that teaching people to learn from failure really is an important educational tool,鈥� says Donna Brown, a Santa Fe artist. 鈥淎nd even though 鈥榮uccess from failure鈥� can sound narrow, it really applies to kids of all ages. A lot of kids who fail later in life just didn鈥檛 learn that. Learning from failure or mistakes, to me, is the foundation for education.鈥�
In contrast, that lesson was one that Alvin Brown seemed to have been born understanding, say both Donna Brown and Chuck Harab, long-time Chief Financial Officer for Aldon and Executive Director of the Alvin I. & Peggy S. Brown Family Charitable Foundation, Inc.
鈥淪olutions were always there, you just had to keep thinking and searching for them,鈥� Harab said in describing the man he called his mentor and second father. 鈥淧art of his sage advice was the thought that inventions are born by thinking of solutions to every day practical problems.鈥�
Lin-Siegler and Firestein, former Chair of Columbia鈥檚 Department of Biological Sciences, will direct Brown Foundation funding toward:
- Development of 鈥渘ew curricular materials.鈥�
- Advancing research on the psychology of science and innovation.
- The creation of an archive featuring people from different walks of life sharing their thoughts on failure as important information and a stepping stone to the pinnacle of intellectual and academic accomplishment.
Lin-Siegler says she is grateful for the opportunity to advance her work, but even more excited about the potential outcome. 鈥淢y hope is that our findings will bring the benefits of Mr. Brown鈥檚 sage wisdom to future generations of students and teachers.鈥�
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