A local teacher did, and made good use of it!
The Friday, August 23 issue of The News had a big typo — right on the front page, right in the top headline. Did you notice it?
The mistake was a missing T in the word ‘Street’ (it was spelled ‘Sreet’). Not everyone noticed, because often our eyes see what is supposed to be there, not really what is there.
Whew! But, it had to be addressed. With a Facebook post that was done; there were lots of “I didn’t even notice” posts, which made The News staff feel a lot better. Because, in fact, five different people read that page in it’s pre-print stage, and we never saw the missing T.
We moved on, and printed the next week’s edition, with (hopefully) no major errors.
But the story doesn’t end there.
Last week, Highland Falls Intermediate School sixth and seventh grade teacher Heather Evangelista contacted The News and asked permission to use the front page in a lesson about making mistakes. We, of course, said yes.
“Mistakes at HFIS are ‘Much Ado About NOTHING!’,” Evangelista said in a mock headline she emailed to us.
She explained what she did.
“In an effort to foster a growth mindset in our classroom, students have participated in three activities focused upon turning mistakes into opportunities,” she wrote. “Too often students focus on their errors and failures rather than identifying strengths and success.”
So, her students were given a “close reading task” utilizing the front page of August 23, 2019 edition of The News.
“They discussed key ideas and word choice but completely missed the spelling error of the word “street” in the headline!
“Once identified, students felt it was ridiculous to worry about one incorrect word when the editor successfully published an entire newspaper,” she said. “And seeing the error in the newspaper encouraged students to embrace imperfection and provided permission to take risks. Mistakes have lead to amazing accomplishments and will be welcomed in our classroom this year. It’s amazing what happens when we give children the permission to make mistakes. Thank you for allowing me to share your headline … powerful example of embracing a growth mindset!”
We are so happy to hear this. Because, her lesson is one we all need to remember: everyone makes mistakes! What did English poet Alexander Pope write? “To err is human, to forgive divine.”
Thanks to Mrs. Evangelista and her students for reminding us at The News that it’s okay to make mistakes.
However, we acknowledge that we’re going to have to be on our ‘A’ game in the future … she tells us that her students are anxiously awaiting upcoming issues so they can continue to work on their proofreading.
“They are looking forward to Friday’s paper to accept the proofreading challenge,” she said. “They will be reading it cover to cover!”
