Growth Mindset: School vs Learning

I had never heard of the Carol Dweck and the way she described growth mindset. I really liked the idea of schools using "not yet" instead of "failing". It could still have some negative effects that the grade "failing" carries with it, but I think overall it would encourage students to keep trying. "Not yet" does not have the finality that "failing" does. That was an interesting thing I had never heard of or thought about before watching this video with Carol Dweck. A lot of the problems with the growth mindset, like Carol Dweck hinted, is that the schools don't teach this kind of thinking. Schools are more obsessed with the idea of doing well on End-of-Instruction tests that report the school having higher scores than the students actually retaining information and learning lessons that will last a lifetime. The focus of school should be learning and growing and becoming the best you possible, not the you that can reach a satisfactory score and be content.

Growth Mindset 

 Now that I am in college, I have struggled to not compare myself to others. I have seen others be naturally gifted in an area I am not and felt jealous and envious of their natural abilities. Then I work hard and eventually learn and understand the topic. I feel elated that I was able to learn and come so far; whereas, the other students don't know how to persevere and put in the effort to understand a concept that they don't immediately understand. I learned about the growth mindset my sophomore year of college, and that has helped me develop my learning style and my character into a person that thrives on growth and improvement rather than success or failure. The school should be teaching the students this mindset from an early age to encourage students to live with this mindset throughout their careers.