My Growth Mindset opinion

I had never heard about Carol Dweck and the "Growth Mindset" theory before today and I have to say I'm slightly embarrassed. Although I have never really been afraid of a challenge, I have also seemed to have taken some easier routes when it came to my school work. When I say easier routes, I really mean not trying to go beyond what is asked of me. Especially when I was younger and went to public schools I never really had a challenge and was typically done with my school work before most of the other kids. This is why my parents moved me to private schools. My parents realized that I needed more of a challenge but to be honest even at that I could have gone farther in some aspects. I was always the kid just looking to get an A as easily as possible as Dweck described in her TED talk.

Now this makes me sound bad, but I would say that I'm normally looking for a challenge myself however it may not be school work always. For example in my sports days I was always pretty athletic until a couple of unfortunate back injuries, but one thing that I did over some of my team mates was work out. I started hitting weights in about the 7th grade pretty hard. I loved challenging myself to new strengths so I would push myself. I did this with school work to in terms of studying to make sure I got A's but honestly there were times things were easier and I should have kept going.

I think Carol Dweck is right about it not always being the mindset but rather the person was conditioned to this thinking of easy work is good work. I think that is also due to time constrictions. It is impossible for each student to be given individual attention at all times so they end up being just left alone because they are not causing any problems. This is an issue because no one is inspiring this smarter child, while the focus is being put on kids who aren't getting the information as easily. Honestly at the University this is bad as well. For my case because everything is so competitive with getting into dental school, I've fallen into the category of just trying to get an A rather than truly learning and expanding my knowledge.

This has inspired me to look more into researching a scientific topic myself and trying to learn the most I can about it just for my own betterment. I would also like to make myself start reading for pleasure rather than just for classes.

This has me excited to learn more about the Growth Mindset through the rest of this course and apply it not only to myself but maybe challenge those around me.

Cat meme found on GrowthMindset Memes blog