Complex Numbers

I Know

Today's "you're doing it wrong" entry applies - as so many such articles do - to parents.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/06/the-s-word/397205/

At whatever age smart people develop the idea that they are smart, they also tend to develop vulnerability around relinquishing that label. So the difference between telling a kid “You did a great job” and “You are smart” isn’t subtle. That is, at least, according to one growing movement in education and parenting that advocates for retirement of “the S word.”

I think that brings the number of words you're not supposed to say in front of your kids up to 3,255. Pretty soon you won't be able to say anything to them.

The group most damaged by fixed-mindset thinking is high-achieving girls, Boaler argues, because it’s girls who are told by society that they probably won’t be as good as boys at math and science.

So, wait - follow the logic here - if you tell someone she's "smart," it's because she's a high achiever. But then - somehow - this turns them into underachievers because reasons?

“When we give kids the message that mistakes are good, that successful people make mistakes, it can change their entire trajectory,” Boaler said. 100 percent is not an ideal score. When kids come home from school and announce that they got everything right on their school work, Dweck advises parents to offer some sympathy: Oh, I’m sorry you didn't get the chance to learn.

And, meanwhile, those who consistently get 100 percent scores will go on to the likes of Harvard and MIT, leaving those who made mistakes in the dust.

When kids get the idea that they “aren’t math people,” they start a downward trajectory, and their career options shrink immediately and substantially. There is also the common idea of a wall in math: People learn math until they hit a wall where they just can’t keep up. That wall may be trigonometry, and it may be advanced calculus, and it may be calculating a tip.

I can agree that math is important. But what I see holding people back is the repeated question: "How am I going to use this stuff in the real world?" And that, it seems to me, more than anything else, keeps people from learning. I hate that question. It's why I could never be a teacher and one reason I never wanted to become a parent: ask me that once, and I will give up on teaching you, because you've obviously (in my mind) given up on yourself.

All knowledge is useful. Some, admittedly, is more useful than others. But the more you learn, the more connections you can make, and the more you can at least read shit like this critically.

Full disclosure: I was called "smart" from a young age. I also made plenty of mistakes, and learned from them. But I also learned from teachers. I also learned that "smart" isn't valued in our society. And that - not mere words - is what we have to change if we're ever going to amount to anything.