My Thoughts on the Growth Mindset

    I had not heard of Carol Dweck or the growth mindset, though I am a big fan of TED talks in general. This concept is really interesting to me personally, so thank you, Laura, for introducing it to me this semester! Up until I was ten, I attended a Montessori school in Kansas City (my father was a teacher there, so my sisters and I got discounted tuition),  at which point I switched to public schools, so I've gotten to experience two wildly different teaching methods. I don't know much about the technical foundations of the Montessori Method, but I remember my father explaining to me when I was older and had switched to private schools that it is centered around the idea of allowing children to "discover" concepts for themselves, as opposed to being taught through rules and lessons. I don't remember ever sitting down for a lesson at that school; we were mostly given a selection of toys and games that were meant to teach us things like multiplication, geography, etc, and given time to play. Switching to a traditional public school was a big change for me; there was an emphasis on structure, punctuality, and achievement. In Montessori, I was never given grades, and my parents were never given report cards, but all of a sudden I was given scores on my work, and was encouraged to strive for A's all across the board. I was young, so I was able to adapt relatively quickly, but looking back, I realize how radical a method like that of Montessori is from the standpoint of traditional educational theory. Carol Dweck's ideas gave me a bit of deja vu, because I do see echoes of Maria Montessori's theories in what she says.

The Clay-Platte Montessori School - Kansas City, MO (Source: Business Yab)

    I appreciate Dweck's focus on progress and personal growth. In most American schools, we tend to take one mold, one set of benchmarks and requirements, and apply that to all students. The reality is that we are all different, we all start at different places in terms of our knowledge and understanding of certain subjects. It puts a lot of pressure on students to have them be in this constant competition with each other. It's like having a race in which the runners all start at different distances from the finish line, and then expecting them to all get there at the same time. Dweck points out that every child is different, and that what should matter more is each students' personal growth and their ability to challenge themselves. She encourages us to look at our mistakes not as failures or embarrassments, but as an opportunity for growth. I found this infographic on Pinterest that sums up the difference between someone with a fixed mindset, and a growth mindset.

Fixed Mindset versus Growth Mindset (Source: All Posters)

    I agree with Laura's comment that traditional grading systems today don't really support this concept, but I think it would be really amazing if more schools started adopting some of these principles, even if they had to tweak their grading systems to do so. The problem is that public schools are directed in a lot of ways by the Department of Education (and don't get me started on Betsy DeVos), which in general seems resistant to changing the way it currently operates. It was a really interesting concept to learn about, and I'm excited to see what everybody else thinks about it.