<p>This is from one of the practice tests in the Barron's book.</p>
<p>Statement:
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The novelist John Hensey wrote, "Learning starts with failure; the first failure is the beginning of education."
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<p>What are your thoughts on the idea that failure is necessary for education to take place?</p>
<p>Essay:</p>
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Failure is essential to all learning. Though it may seem like failure does nothing but hinder one's acquisition of knowledge, it is quite the contrary. Failure comes in many forms, all of which will eventually be beneficial to the individual experiencing them. Thomas Edison, a much celebrated American inventor; Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea; and the development of a human from birth to adulthood provide evidence to support my argument.</p>
<p>Thomas Alva Edison, a 19th century American inventor, most famous for his creation of the incandescent light bulb, one states that "genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." This quote implies that genius comes from hard work, and hard work rarely comes without failure. In fact, many consider hard work to be the courage to continue even once struck with failure. In his quest for the invention of the light bulb, Edison failed numerous times. Each time, he learned from his mistakes and eventually succeeded.</p>
<p>In Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, a novella about Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman, and his quest to catch a legendary marlin, provides an excellent example of success achieved because of failure. Santiago spent his entire life fishing, constantly looking to catch the biggest fish in the ocean. As he aged, the amount of fish he caught lessened until he began to go months without catching a single fish. He persevered and tried to discover what was causing his constant failure, when he caught the gigantic marlin. Though sharks ate it on the way back to shore, ant nothing more was left of it than a skeleton, he went fishing once again the next day. Santiago never once considered quitting, even when his failure was never-ending, which ultimately led to his greatest feat of all: the capture of the legendary marlin.</p>
<p>The development of a human being supports the claim that failure is at the heart of all learning. As a baby begins to grow, it experiences countless failures that all eventually help it. Early on, when a toddler begins to walk, it will fall numerous times before finally learning to walk properly. By teaching it how not to walk, failure teaches the child how to walk. Human life is plagued with such failures (a failed relationship leading to a good one, a horrible experience leading to a much better similar experience, etc.). Failures show people their mistakes, the awareness of which promotes learning and leads to success.</p>
<p>Failure has always been a part of every aspect of life, from birth onwards. It is present in the sciences, as Thomas Edison experiences, and even in modern literature, as The Old Man and the Sea shows us. Failure, a part of human nature, is just that: Something we could not live without. We learn when we fail, and to repeat a common saying, "if at first you don't succeed, try again."
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<p>So, what do you think? :)</p>