[Well Teachers] The power of a ‘protected fail’ in teaching… well, anything

12.7.25

“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.”

— James Joyce

Greetings,

This past couple of weeks I have really felt these two contrasting experiences of teaching:

On the one side, as an introvert, teaching and facilitating is actually very challenging and can be draining for me; I often find it demands so much from me.

But on the other, it also provides me so much meaning, friendship, and joy. These are profoundly good reasons that keep me always making an effort to maintain a teaching or facilitation practice.

Teaching for me recently has also been a natural way I've been reconnecting, finding my voice again, and having moments of joy that cut through the fog of heavier feelings.

We often hear how teaching leads to burnout. And yes, it can.

But many who teach actively (supporting students in learning a real skill, guiding a class) will know:

✨ Sometimes teaching is the very thing that pulls you out of burnout.

After long stretches of facilitating as a trainer these past years - where I’ve mostly been talking about teaching, being back in the teacher’s seat again has felt like finding a version of myself I haven’t had chai with in a looong time.

That feeling of being needed, of being the calm so someone else can learn... it can bring you back to your centre.

Back to yourself.

Teaching… it can be healing.

Have you ever found this? Sometimes it’s just an interaction with one student that fixes things for the whole day.

I wish you a good weekend ahead, and hope you enjoy this newsletter.

All the best,

Sumbella

✏️ NEW ARTICLE

🌿 The Power of a Protected Fail (and how to create the right conditions for it)

One day a couple of weeks ago, one young lady who lives nearby me, with a twinkle in her eyes, told me she'd seen my videos and she would like to learn archery with me.

And driving, too.

And then another joined her.

And then two more.

And it has just become so fun, this little gang of us now, learning these skills, having some fun, and they're even teaching one another.

There is such joy when they manage something new... it is a kind of medicine for us all.

Through these on-the-go teaching experiences, I’ve been thinking more and more about one powerful teaching principle I keep coming back to and notice I like to weave into the initial stages of learning a skill: the protected fail.

I relate this practice to the concept or theory of "Tell me and I forget; teach me and I remember; involve me and I learn."

It isn't just in teaching archery that I've applied this idea of a protected fail. It's also in Mandarin. And in teaching how to drive a manual car.

Here are three different examples of recent protected fails I've woven into these three distinctly different subjects:

📒 RECENT ACTIVITY

Not on social media? Here's a roundup of recent shares.

📒 Recent Posts:

LinkedIn Post: On the things I didn’t know about heart attacks, and 3 key learnings

LinkedIn Post: On the grief olympics - dark humour, coping with loss, and being consoled

💫 ON LIBERATION

🤭 CHUCKLE CHUCKLE

Join in at Well Teachers:

The Well (Our International teacher membership)

The Hobby Course: Mandarin (Live cohort starts July)

The Planning Retreat (Pre-booking open for December)

The ‘Find Your Four Elements’ Workshop (Coming soon)

📣 NOTICE BOARD

Looking to make shifts in your physical wellbeing this summer?

Malek Zwein, based in the UAE, has recently released his flagship course for supporting teachers with their physical wellbeing: ‘The Biology of Wellbeing’. It is now available at Edu Bridges - connect with Malek on LinkedIn to find out more and start learning along with him.