Field of Daisies

The first thing I see in this chapter are phrases like "fun failures" and "why failure makes us happy".  These titles make me happy because I feel there is too much of a push on perfection and because of this students, young or old, are terrified of messing up because they don't want to look stupid.  In games when we fail we try again happily, but why not in life.  In a game there isn't any harmful consequences to be had if you fail but in life we but up too many consequences to where failure is not an option.  If we fail, we learn of course from the mistakes but that shows us where to improve.  Let us fail, and we will learn.

I love her point that games are a great place to practice flexible optimism.  Let's face it you are not going to be happy all the time and things are going to look grim.  In games, however, you seem to be pretty optimistic about your outcome in the game. So why do we not have that in real life?  Because we tend to not look for those opportunities for success because of all the negative feedback all around us.  Tune out the haters and play on.

Gamers are not loners.  In games, or at least most of them,  we have to depend on and trust one another in order to succeed.  This is true in life.  If you try to do everything on your own you will be bitter, angry and well a lone.  Go through life building your "party" and gather the right tools because the journey is long but no one was meant to go at it alone and unprepared.

McGonigal used the phrase "just one more time" in this chapter.  This is the attitude that is key in a failure is optional classroom.  Just because you messed up doesn't mean that it's over.  I know when I find myself using this phrase it usually means, let me play till I get it and not just one more time.  Give your students second, third and even seventy-fifth chances, as long as they are getting back up and pushing forward.

Hope is huge in life which means it should also be just as big in the classroom.  If students don't feel hopeful, they will give up.  Why try, they might ask.  As teacher's we must show them why they should try, give them reasons to go on.  In games hope may be a 1-up mushroom in Mario, or a heart piece in Zelda.  These things give us that bit of hope to make us go on because we feel as if we can do it.  Give your students that same bit of hope.