Principals' Corner
September 28, 2009
Dear Parents,
With Professional Learning Communities in mind, I just finished reading an amazing book called, Mindset by Carol S. Dweck. The advice for teachers and administrators is very powerful. The advice for parents is just as compelling!
The basic idea of mindset is that we are inclined to have either a fixed mind set or a growth mind set.
A fixed mind set is all about labeling, being better than others, validating our identities, and believing that intelligence, personality traits, and character are
rigid and unchanging. A growth mind set focuses on learning, getting better, welcoming challenges and failures, and believing that through effort performance, intelligence, and behavior can change.
The mindset we have predicts how we will approach problems, set goals, take risks, and ultimately grow.
Here are some suggestions from Carol Dweck for all of us to maximize growth for children:
- Every word or action from parent(teacher) to child sends a message. Tomorrow listen to what you say to your kids and tune in to the messages your’re sending. Are they messages that say: You have permanent traits and I’m judging them? Or are they messages that say You are a developing person and I am interested in your development?
- How do you praise your children? Do you focus on their efforts or do you focus on their intelligence or their talents? Praising children’s intelligence harms their motivation and it harms their performance. Always try to focus on the effort and the improvement when you praise your child.
- Watch and listen to yourself when your child makes a mistake. Do you give your child constructive feedback about how to improve?
- Parents often set goals for their children. Remember having a innate talent is not a goal.
- All kids misbehave. Research shows that normal young children can misbehave up to every 3 minutes. Do you use these occasions to teach or to judge?
Children with fixed mindsets feel that their traits are being measured all the time. Students with a fixed mindset stay interested in learning only when they do well right away. Those who find learning a particular subject difficult show a big drop in interest and enjoyment. On the other hand, children with growth mindsets continued to show the same level of high interest even when they find work very challenging.
The final question to ask our selves or our children is:
When do you feel smart? When you’re flawless or when you’re learning?
This year teachers will be focusing on helping children achieve a growth mindset. We hope that parents will do the same at home!
For our children,
Sandy Anderson, Principal
Charlotte Drayer, Associate Principal
Jamie Di Carlo, Learning Coordinator for Special Education
