January 26, 2026
By Jenna Fournel, Chief Curiosity Officer
Listen to the Hooray For Monday podcast for Jenna’s conversation about resolution setbacks with research specialist Maria and the audio version of this newsletter.
An interview in the Scientific American from earlier this month states that, “an estimated 40 percent of U.S. adults set resolutions in any given year… and some research suggests that as many as 88 percent of Americans give up on their resolutions within two weeks.” This resembles my wobbly relationship with my own resolution for this year: to stay focused in the here and now. I’m trying to establish new habits to make this happen—and messing up quite a bit. But as in all things, I found a lesson for how I might handle these mistakes differently, thanks to a recent classroom visit.
A week ago, I was observing an art class at the Inspired Teaching Demonstration School, where the teacher was introducing PreK 3 students to different shapes at centers around the room. It was her first day back after maternity leave, but you wouldn’t have guessed that from how the class was humming with joyful energy, and she was enthusiastically moving around the room, meeting students’ needs.
Over in one corner of the room, students were tracing shapes using markers on transparencies laid over art prints, looking for shapes in works by artists like Jacob Lawrence and Pablo Picasso. But something wasn’t working. After they finished, they were supposed to wipe off their tracing with an eraser. Only, the erasers weren’t doing the job. You can probably guess what happened: The markers in the station were all permanent. But this art teacher simply said out loud, “Oops! Wrong markers!” And she quickly found her dry-erase markers, replaced the transparencies with new blank ones, and carried on about the room. The students picked up the new markers and, reveling in the fresh new colors, actually started tracing all over again.
PreK3 students learn about more than just art when the teacher models flexibility after making a mistake!
It was a beautiful example of one of my favorite Rules of Inspired Teaching Improv: Embrace Mistakes. Rather than turn the permanent-marker situation into a disruptive mess, this teacher showed her students that things don’t always go as planned, and it’s not the end of the world to simply start over.
In that Scientific American interview, behavioral economist Katy Milkman ended with a similar insight that might be useful for those of us lamenting our January lapses in well-intentioned New Year’s goals.
“P.S., if it doesn’t work out this time, that doesn’t mean New Year’s resolutions are a bad idea next time. And P.S., you can make a new resolution next Monday, the beginning of the next week, on your birthday or on any arbitrary day because all of this is in our head about fresh starts anyhow. So give yourself some grace and try your best, and then if it doesn’t work out, try again the next time.”
It would be lovely if mistakes weren’t essential to the process, but it turns out that’s how we learn!
Hooray For Monday is an award-winning weekly publication of Center for Inspired Teaching, a social change nonprofit organization that champions the power of curiosity and is dedicated to transforming the school experience from compliance-based to engagement-based. Inspired Teaching provides transformative, improvisation-based professional learning for teachers that is 100% engaging – intellectually, emotionally, and physically.
