Mar 04 2008
I wish I would’ve known this when I was a kid!
This article on the Scientific American web site describes my outlook on life growing with amazing accuracy! I’m surprised how detailed they can be in calling me a “fixed mind-set”. It explains so many things.
I was in the gifted program in school. I was always told I was smart. I had terrible study habits going into jr. high and high school. I got by on my smarts. If I had it, I had it. Doing homework wasn’t going to change that. I became a very good test taker. That showed what I knew, not repetitive homework. I thought of myself as lazy (still do!), when it seems clear that this is a symptom of the fixed mind-set.
I never liked being categorized unless it was in a favorable way, because you can’t change things. I liked test scores and IQ tests because I excelled. But when things got progressively harder I would make excuses and start to “check out” mentally.
I’ve only recently (since 2000 maybe?) began to look at life from a growth mind-set. Looking at practicing, or trying new things and a different perspective about failure as a mastery activity instead of drudgery.
This article link may not always be there – it was written in November of 2007. And it is a little academic; it talks about some studies that have been done to show the difference in effectiveness for children who subscribe to these two mind sets.
There is a focus in the article about the importance of deciding to teach this growth mind-set to children as they grow up. This has been part of my frustration with teaching my own children. I want them to see trying something as a positive thing. And to see failure as just a step towards success. At times they show such fear over trying something they haven’t experienced before. It can actually see the struggle between the fixed and the growth mind-set taking place. Now that I can identify and name this phenomenon, it will be that much easier to address and hopefully turn around.
Enough of me rambling on about it – read the article for yourself. Oh, you don’t read very well? Well give it a try! You do get better with a little bit of effort! 😉