No Room for Failure?

I have been rereading Joy Kirr's book Shift This!  As is typical when rereading a book, different passages that may have gone unnoticed previously stand out.  This is one that resonated with me this time around:

There is no room for failure.
"In order to prepare our students for the future, we need to give them opportunities to create -- and risk failure. Sir Ken Robinson also reminds us that kids will take a chance. "If they don't know, they'll have a go." They're frightened to be wrong. Once a grade is attached, the fear of failure is so strong that many students will only take the safe route and not try something new. They won't push themselves. They'll only do what we ask of them, and nothing more! Future careers require creativity and entrepreneurship. When do we give students work that is free from risks? If we are not giving that time to students, they will not be ready for those careers (we can't even imagine) that are coming down the pike." (Joy Kirr, Shift This! p. 144)

Our district, like many others, is in the process of moving to standards-based grading. This is a change that is making many of our teachers nervous, as they fear that if there are no grades, students won't do the work. I am looking forward to the time when students and teachers in our district will spend less talking about grades and points and more time focusing on learning.