[Untitled illustration of Carol Dweks' minsets]. Tech Tello. https://www.techtello.com/fixed-mindset-vs-growth-mindset/
In our second class Michael introduced us to the concepts of mindset and grit and, because of that, I have been thinking a lot about one of my best friends these days. According to Carol Dwek, there are two types of mindset: on the one hand, there are people who think that our abilities are fixed from birth and cannot be changed; on
the other hand there are those who think that we can develop our abilities during our life, despite the talents we are born with.
Personally, I do not have a bad memory of my school, which I attended from the age of three to eighteen. However, I am still very critical of some things that we were taught and how teachers treated us many times. We had some teachers who were horrible, as everyone does I guess; but we also had some teachers who were very good, they alw
ays inspired us and encouraged us to develop in all aspects and to continue working in order to achieve what we wanted. Sadly, this did not apply to all of us. I remember that all through high school, my friend Juan was told to forget, first, about getting into Bachillerato and, then, about going to college. He was always told he was not smart enough for that.
It was always a little hard for Juan to keep up with the rate we were set in school and, as I recall, he needed more time to learn things than most students in our class, he always stru
ggled a little more. He might have needed another kind of motivation or approach or… whatever, I do not know exactly. In my opinion, my teachers did not contemplate a true development, they required us to have certain skills and abilities in the present of that moment, without considering that we still did not have them, but that we could develop them in the future. I think they saw us from the first mindset I have mentioned before.
As I see it, if my teachers had been educated in Carol Dwek’s mindsets, they would not have dedicated themselves to beat up a student and just tell him that he could not do what he wanted to do, that he was not good enough to learn, I think they would have had a different posture.
The good part of the story, and this is where I see my friend as the personification of grit, is that Juan was
always sure about what he wanted to achieve, to be an archaeologist. He never gave up even though our teachers tried to make him do it. He got through Bachiller and got into college and now he is studying Archaeology. At school, he never got extraordinary grades, however, now he gets straight A’s, which is just incredible. But not only that, he likes going to class, enjoys sharing the things he learns and also enjoys going beyond his lessons. Juan always had the determination and the will to continue towards his objective so, despite the hardships, he is on the way to achieving his long-term goal.
I believe, many times teachers do not realize the influence their words can have and the harm they can do to their students with them. My teachers words could have ruined my friend's future as he spent half of his life thinking that he was not good enough, that he was dumb, and that he would never achieve his ambitions. I am very grateful to have been introduced to these two visions right from the start of the master’s degree as they will be extremely useful for me both professionally, in my future career, and personally, from now on.
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