Fixed or GrowthThe growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way— in their initial talents and aptitudes, interest or temperaments— everyone can change and grow through application and experience.Mindset………The New Psychology of Success

Carol Dweck
2006

I had reported on this book by Carol Dweck in a previous blog.

I wrote back to Donna to hear more about the conversation with her daughter. Here is her response.

I thought the most interesting point my daughter made was surrounding her perceptions of which mindset the school is fostering. Taking herself as an example, she has struggled with some learning issues over her years which means she has had to work much harder (and longer) than most of her peers. With that in mind, she is taking all honors classes in middle school and persevering as long as it takes her to keep up with the work load. We are so proud of the fact that she is keeping up, and actually she is proud too. At the end of the first marking period, she proudly shared her report card which included all As and a B plus. We were thrilled, especially being aware of the extra effort on her part to achieve this. The next day, the middle school parents received an announcement that there would be a special ceremony to be held at the school (during the school day) to honor the students who had received “all As” on their report card. Children who worked extra hard but may not have received all As were not invited to attend, so of course my daughter (who had a B plus on her report card) was not invited to attend. My daughter’s comment was “Now, what kind of mindset is that fostering?” Interesting…

Donna’s daughter raises a very important question. We should all be exploring how our practices might change to teach and promote effort.