The Victory in Failure!

 

 

 

 

How many people have enjoyed a Hershey product?  Chances are, most people have experienced some delicious form of product from this well known company, but few probably know this company came about only after many failures!  Its an inspiring story of perseverance!

 

Milton Hershey
Milton Hershey had a long path to the top of the chocolate industry. Hershey dropped out of school in the 4th grade and took an apprenticeship with a printer, only to be fired. He then became an apprentice to a candy-maker in Lancaster, PA. After studying the business for 4 years, Hershey started three unsuccessful candy companies in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York.

Hershey was not about to give up, so he moved back to Lancaster and began the Lancaster Caramel Company. His unique caramel recipe, which he had come across during his earlier travels, was a huge success. Hershey, who was always looking ahead, believed that chocolate products had a much greater future than caramel. He sold the Lancaster Caramel Company for $1 million in 1900 (nearly $25 million in 2008 dollars) and started the Hershey Company, which brought milk chocolate -- previously a Swiss delicacy -- to the masses.

Not only did Hershey overcome failure and accomplish his goals, but he also managed to do it close to home. Hershey created hundreds of jobs for Pennsylvanians. He also used some of his money to build houses, churches, and schools, cementing his status as a legend in the Keystone State.

Persistence is key.

 

http://www.growthink.com/content/7-entrepreneurs-whose-perseverance-will-inspire-you

 

 

In the last few years, I've really started to see the benefit of failure!  I believe we learn best by experience, whether our own or from hearing of others.  When we experience things, we often think about what or how we would do that thing differently, and that's called learning.  If Milton Hershey hadn't experienced failure, learned from it, and persevered, our world would be much less delicious!!  Thankfully, Hershey experienced 'productive failure'

(Fisher, 11).  This concept is what struck me most out of this weeks materials regarding text complexity.  The article, Text Complexity: Raising Rigor in Reading, brings up what I think is often an overlooked, but critical concept, that in order to really learn, students often times need to experience hardship.  Regarding the topic of text complexity, the authors make a good point that "perhaps one of the mistakes in the past efforts to improve reading achievement has been the removal of struggle.  As a profession, we may have made reading tasks too easy" (Fisher, 11).  Often times, its easier to not challenge kids, both on them and the teacher.  But if a student only reads books at a second grade level, how will they ever move past it?  The article continues by saying "we do not suggest that we should plan students' failure but rather that students should be provided with opportunities to struggle and to learn about themselves as readers when they struggle, persevere, and eventually succeed" (Fisher, 11).  Earlier in the article, the authors say that students learn more when they have challenging texts (6).  Last year, I taught a 6/7/8 grade combo class.  We had one sixth grader, who'd been in a 4/5 combo the year before.  She'd never done 6th grade math, but due to the fact she was the only sixth grader, the principal put her in the Pre-Algebra class with some seventh and eighth graders.  She struggled at first, in fact, she was terrified, but after awhile, she was at the top of the class!!  With the proper help, with the proper tools and guidance, she worked through her failures and found victory!!  I think in the educational world, students are often unchallenged, and that is one reason we see reading skills so low by the end of high school.  How do we do it?  In that same article, the authors speak of the importance of instructing students so that they can succeed in reading more complex texts.  It is our job as teachers to provide the texts and give them the instruction so that they can build their skills.  We give students the strategies to read more complex texts, and give them the opportunities to build skills from them (11).  Its not learning if they already know how to do something, I think one of the best things we can do for our students is - with that proper instruction - allow them to struggle!  Understanding text complexities as teachers is the first place to start, and we will probably all go through the same process of struggling and failing before we achieve victory in helping our students grow in their skills to comprehend more complex texts, but it will be worth it!  The Fisher article was what I was draw to this week, but I felt the other two articles supported the points made by providing example of how to find the right level of texts (Hiebert) - particularly the need to use multiple sources to establish a texts complexity, and with the great idea to adapt primary sources for students to benefit and understand (Wineberg).  One think I thought about in regards to adapting primary sources is how maybe it would be helpful to have students at a higher level translate the primary source documents to more modern terms and ways of writing.  The examples they provided and steps they gave are helpful ways to apply what we are learning about text complexity, in a real way!  If we know how to determine the complexity of a book, we can know what books will challenge our students.

 

One question that comes to mind this week is how do you know when a student needs to struggle more or if its time to intervene?  How do you balance challenging students to persevere without them becoming disinterested or giving up?