The subject of this article is to submit success and failure at school to the major concepts of ergology. Using the central elements of the allosteric approach, which identifies the mechanisms of learning, we will update the dynamic of transformation and destabilization, which imply that discomfort and dissonance come with learning. To experience this, and succeed, we suggest that the learner must make use of himself through confidence and motivation. We will examine making use of oneself, confidence and motivation based on the ergological concepts of dramatic use of self and the body-self. As such, learning, and success in learning, seems to be the order of the activity. This will be an opportunity to propose an analysis of failure as dramatic use of self. Along the same lines, the question will remain open as to how to find the dynamic of dramatic uses of self again, at a deeper level than the cognitive remediation normally prescribed when failure occurs.