4 ms·
If it's a convenient belief that also produces good results, then the utilitarian in me is less interested in truth. If it works for some people, that's enough.
by geden 8y ago
If it's a convenient belief that also produces good results, then the utilitarian in me is less interested in truth. If it works for some people, that's enough.
At the age of 14 I took a Mensa test which came back with an IQ of 176. Up to that point I'd had reason to suspect I was smart. Once I had the 'proof', things went very badly for me, essentially I stopped working in school, especially work I didn't like. I got very confused and quite depressed when I didn't get the best result. I was smart and quite isolated in a small northern former coal mining town in England. Perhaps the tests were stupid. I eventually scraped into university and did very badly there (but fortunately found the nascent internet and a passion that sustains a career).
So 15 years later when I start reading about the growth mindset theories I'm like 'fuck yes!'.
I was thrilled and relieved when my youngest daughter (very smart, but prone to giving up if she doesn't crack a problem quickly) came home after starting secondary school and gave me a lecture on growth mindset. It's a core part of the schools ethos. They are a selective grammar school where everyone is smart.
It doesn't need to be absolutely empirically true to an effective learning tool. The mind is a slippery fish and they vary a lot. I see it as a tool like the pomodoro technique or flash cards which work better for some people than others.
TL;DR Growth mindset tools are especially important for smart people. It's just one technique in education.
- rjf72 8y agoI'm not entirely sure you and the parent poster are necessarily disagreeing. Imagine we are watching a 10 man marathon about to start. And you and I see that of the 10 competitors, 3 have a ball and chain strapped to their legs, 5 are just somewhat weighed down, and then 2 of them are somehow riding scooters. Yet from the perspective of each of the competitors they all look pretty much the same to one another. I'd fully agree that telling the 2 that they should just try their hardest is definitely the right thing to do. Letting them know their advantage, especially prematurely, would be only likely to drive hubris and create a story of the tortoise and the hare. But if they apply themselves, the sky's the limit. Yet at the same time, what of the 3 with the ball and chain? They're not going to win, or even be able to compete in this field, regardless of how hard they try. Trying to convince them that they can do anything they want with hard work might make us feel better about ourselves, but I doubt is going to make them feel great as they find failure after failure regardless of the amount of effort they expend. Maybe the best solution is indeed to just pretend, but I think that would only be because it is a least awful solution. I certainly cannot see any argument to be made that this is a desirable or ethical idea as it relates to the three we're talking about.