The Power of Belief

For the majority of my life, I believed that people had certain innate talents.  If you were a really good baseball player or could sing well enough to be on American Idol, it meant that you were lucky to be born with those skills.  Kids who were prolific readers or who could compute numbers quickly and accurately in school were simply smart. Everyone seemed to be lumped into one of two categories - you either had the talent, or you didn't.  Sure you could practice at something and get better, but on a fundamental level you either were or were not.

This world view was great if you happen to be in the "good" category.  But, what if you weren't? What if your early experiences with something were not successful?  What if you failed at something? How did you react?

In elementary school, spelling was a "talent" I did not have.  Spelling tests and accurately spelling words while writing were always a challenge for me. I just assumed that I wasn't good at spelling and tried my best not to be put in positions where I had to do it all that often; rather than trying to get better, I avoided it altogether as best I could.

Much later in life, I came across the work of Dr. Carol Dweck and her research about how our brains function.  She explained how are brains are not static, or fixed, but how they can be changed and grow. She introduced me to the concept of having a Growth Mindset.  Much like a muscle, if we exercise our brains in specific ways and try to get better at the things we are not currently good at, our brains will actually grow!  More neurons - those are the cells in our brains that process and transmit information - will form inside our brains when we purposefully try to get better at things. In a sense, our brains actually get better when we work hard to improve.

Wow...

So, all of this time I spent thinking that people were born with a talent or not was wrong?  All of this time I spent thinking people were simply smart, athletic, musical, or even good SPELLERS was inaccurate?....YES, I was wrong!!!

The interesting thing is that most kids and adults still believe that everyone is born with a certain amount of talent, intelligence, or personality and one cannot increase this random gift of nature.  Here at Evergreen, each of you are different.  You know what it means to have a Growth Mindset.  You know that by working hard, learning from your failures, and believing in the power of "yet", you can grow your brains.  

However, outside of Evergreen you will still have to convince some of your friends, family members, and maybe even your parents that this is true.  To help you be persuasive, here is my challenge for you:

At Evergreen we have purposefully filled the school, your classrooms, and the lessons you learn with both visible and invisible messages of having a Growth Mindset.  Find them. List them in the comment section.  Make as many connections as you can between having a Growth Mindset and your experiences at Evergreen.  The student who finds the most and makes the best associations will be recognized by me publicly and will win a prize!

Open your eyes, look all around you and find all the ways your school is trying to teach you to believe that you can get better at anything by having a Growth Mindset, even spelling!