It's All Based on Interpretation

An email my dad had sent me as I was typing this blog post.  Example of growth mindset?  and good timing.

Failure is seen and interpreted differently for every person. Depending where it comes from, be it a parent, teacher, coach, or some other authority figure, it can help you or completely tear you down.  In chapter 7 of mindset, they touched on praise again but in terms of failure. A fixed mindset child or student would see the statement “Wow, good job! You learned this so quickly and did amazing on this test” as a sign of praise, but only for the fact that they learned quickly and did well. So if they don’t continue this path, they will be seen as a failure. Same with a child with the growth mindset, they’d see it as praise and continue to learn and challenge themselves. In mindset, they also mentioned ways that parents and teachers can encourage their kids without hinting at failure, and helping them learn and grow. After reading, I thought to myself “I’ve heard some of these statements before”, but they’ve never influenced how I work and think. Reading about the students whose parents would only support them if they went on to fulfill their wishes of going to Harvard, showed me how much easier I have it. My parents didn’t care where I went or what I did as long as the price was right. My independence was my motivation to get where I am now. No label or specific profession or suggestions motivated me. We all look to our parents for support, and when it’s a spur of the moment, it’s hard to think through what you’re about to say and how it will affect your child when it comes to consoling them or telling them what they could do better next time. Reading the article on 32 innovations gave me an eye opener for what people are working on. It’s guaranteed that some of these things will fail, and make society lazier than we already are, but they are a work in progress and when they fail the first time, the inventors will be right there doing everything they can and working to make it better. The article/ debate on “Are We Getting Dumber” showed the evolution of society and how we live today. I don’t believe we’re necessarily getting dumber, but we are getting much lazier and reliant on technology to do our work for us.