Research shows that people who react emotionally to a failure are less likely to repeat their mistakes than people who respond rationally. Feelings work better than thoughts in avoiding that the same mistake be repeated twice. Feeling is better than understanding. After a failure many people tend to repress emotions and rationalize, or try to understand where they made a mistake. However, more often than not the explanations one gives are actually justifications that overlook or downplay certain aspects while at the same time exaggerating other ones, according to a plan that ultimately saves one’s honor. Naturally, explanations assembled with the help of impartial people are very useful because not guided and free to touch the emotions of the person at fault. The crucial point is that you must pass through emotions if you want to learn a lesson for the future. Obviously, in the case of technical errors (Maths test), a rational explanation is sufficient not to repeat the same error. If instead, the error is a bad mark on your end of term report, let the student cry. The problem is that since we are small children, we are told that it is important to understand one’s mistakes whereas it would be better to feel one’s mistakes if we want to improve.