Serendipity

Chocolate chip cookies were invented by Ruth Wakefield when she attempted to make chocolate drop cookies. She did not have the required chocolate so she broke up a candy bar and placed the chunks into the cookie mix. These chunks later morphed into what is now known as chocolate chip cookies. Because of a serendipitous experience we now have a favorite cookie.

I first heard the word serendipity when I was doing my student teaching many years ago when our student teacher supervisor, Della Provost, introduced it to us. I have loved the word—not only for the way it sounds but for what it means. I like these two definitions:

1. discovery of something fortunate: the accidental discovery of something pleasant, valuable, or useful
2. gift for discovery: a natural gift for making pleasant, valuable, or useful discoveries by accident

The first noted use of "serendipity" in the English language was by Horace Walpole (1717–1792). In a letter to Horace Mann (dated January 28th 1754) he said he formed it from the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip, whose heroes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of".

It has truly been a delightful serendipitous experience to discover how Dr. Purkey’s Invitational Education, Dr. Glasser’s Quality School, and Dr. Haberman’s STAR teachers are intertwined since we have chosen the three to be the foundation of Esperanza Elementary.