“What does not kill me makes me stronger.”

Steve Fouts 00:03
Hey everybody, Steve and Dan Fouts here. We are teaching different with German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche with a quote about perseverance. You’ve probably heard this quote before. “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”  Perseverance is a theme that people can identify with, and especially students who are in the process of figuring out who they are, and running into roadblocks. The roadblocks are different for each student, but students know the feeling of thinking everything is against them. Sometimes nothing is going your way. You might even have enemies, or people who envy you, or bully you. There are negative forces that can sometimes feel like too much. That’s what this quote is about.

Dan Fouts 01:11
It could be their families that are weighing them down. You said friends, but it could be family, or things in society that are acting as negative forces.

Steve Fouts 01:26
That’s exactly it. What claim is Nietzche making?  How would you put the quote into your own words?

Dan Fouts  01:31 – Claim

Well, it’s the perseverance theme. It seems like he’s saying, if you can meet, endure, and survive these forces, then you’ll come out stronger on the other side, and be able to weather the storm in the future. I think that’s probably why you thought, and I agree, that this is an inspiring quote. You just have to push through, and when you do you’re going to have that strength moving forward. For the storytelling piece, ask the students when they felt like they were overcome by so much adversity or difficulties, that they wanted to give up? Getting them to share these experiences encourages empathy from fellow students. Then, have them reflect on those experiences and ask if they overcame them. Some will say yes, and some will say no. For the ones who say, yes, I overcame it, ask them how it made them stronger. How did it make you a stronger person?  They may not have reflected on this before. They might have become stronger, but hadn’t thought about it. This is that opportunity.

Steve Fouts  03:11 – Counterclaim

Sometimes when you survive adversity and challenges, you’re a wounded warrior. You don’t think it made you stronger. I think a good counterclaim against this is that if you’re spending all of your time fighting these forces, and trying to survive, it can weaken you. It could even make you resentful that nobody’s looking out for you. You’re in this world alone, you’re struggling, and you just don’t know how much more struggle you have in you. You survived, but you don’t feel stronger.

Dan Fouts 04:13
A friend betrays you, and then another friend betrays you, now you feel wounded, and unable to trust others.

Steve Fouts 04:24
Then, it becomes self-defeating. You think the whole world is against you.

Dan Fouts 04:32
I like this because you could reasonably conclude that what you need to do is protect yourself from harm.

Steve Fouts 04:40
Exactly. Don’t take on new challenges. Figure out how to avoid them, because perseverance is overrated. It’d be nice to have a life where you don’t have to persevere, where you can get done what you want to get done, be a good person, and not have to struggle.

Dan Fouts 05:00
Yeah, a life of comfort, safety, and not taking risks.

Steve Fouts  05:05 – Essential Question

I think those are valid claims and counterclaims. Here is an essential question that you can use to wrap up the conversation, and get the kids to reflect. Do you have to go through bad experiences to be a strong person?

Now, as far as the curriculum connection is concerned, I’m seeing one in the science realm with diseases, viruses, bacteria, and other harmful forces that can make us sick or even jeopardize our life. There are a lot of negative forces out there in the physical world that act upon our body. One of the dynamics of the human body is that when an outside force, like a virus, acts upon it, your body reacts to fight it off. Maybe you get a fever to fight against this foreign element that’s trying to bring you down. That fight builds your immunity and makes it harder for those same negative forces to have a negative impact. I think teaching the dynamics of viruses, and other harmful physical forces against the body, is an interesting subject to cover with a conversation like this.

Dan Fouts 07:10
I like this way of thinking about it. You could even use muscle building as the same dynamic. You act with force against them, but you end up becoming stronger as a result.

Steve Fouts 07:28
That’s wonderful.

Dan Fouts 07:29
Your body has to replenish itself.

Steve Fouts 07:31
Yeah, I really like the muscle building analogy. You break down your muscles, but your body rebuilds them and you grow stronger. That’s the whole purpose. After a conversation with Frederick Nietzche, maybe the students will look at the human body and the dynamics of it a little differently and appreciate it.

We hope you enjoyed Frederick Nietzche and his quote on perseverance.  Make sure you visit our Conversation Library where we have many conversations like this, each with a different quote, a sample claim, counterclaim, and an essential question to get you started. Thanks everybody for being with us. We’ll see you soon.

Dan Fouts 08:22
All right, have a good one.