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Too Many Kids Quit Science Because They Don't Think They're Smart
An anonymous reader writes: Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford, has done years of study on how students' attitudes affect their academic achievements. Her work began at the height of the "self-esteem movement," when parents were told to praise their kids' brainpower at every turn. But Professor Dweck found that praise for intelligence or talent — relatively immutable characteristics — only turned kids off of trying subjects they perceived as difficult, like math and science. Praising effort, perseverance, and problem-solving strategies works better. She also says, "There is such a thing as too much praise, we believe." Instead, she suggests engaging with kids about the process itself, showing interest and encouragement when they talk about how they did something.
I have to wonder about children these days. When I was in school everyone studied mathematics, science, history, grammar and literature, and often a foreign language from primary/elementary grades through graduation. In high school the girls tended to outperform the boys in most subjects including mathematics and sciences. It seems children born after after 1979 have been coddled and told it is alright not to challenge themselves.
I'm doing the same with my kid. I grew up in the middle of all this. My parents basically told me I was a genius from the time I was a toddler. The result? I didn't even try. It was all beneath me. I got out of high-school with a C average. Luckily I actually was smart enough to do very well on the ACT after I realized maybe I'd screwed up my grades.
My kid gets praised for effort. Telling someone they are smart is no more beneficial than praising them for being handsome, or tall. It's something they have no control over and cannot improve. So why praise it? Praise something they can control, perseverance.
I don't have any cites. I got a psychology degree years ago, during the "praise everything" movement. And it was known at the time that it didn't work. "You are so smart" said to a child is heard as "everything should be easy because you are already good at it." This was known at the time. The correction is "You are such a good problem solver" where the child hears that they can solve every problem, but must work at it. This has an effect closer to the intended "you are so smart" praise.
This was known 20 years ago, but it's take 20 years for the change to make it to public knowledge.
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Hasn't racial segregation just been replaced by postcode segregation?
Its getting more that way in Australia, with large variation in average scores of different schools.
Smart people in poor suburbs tend to send the kids to private schools (often Catholic), or get them into specialist programmes in non-local schools.
I've got biochemistry PhD. And I had to leave the USA to find work. But if I had one wish, it wouldn't be to have chosen a different career, it would be to have never been born. I used to think that if I suffered enough as a child then I would be happy as an adult. Then I thought that I must have done something horribly wrong to have such a miserable life as an adult. Finally, I realized that life is just generally miserable for most people no matter what they do. It really doesn't matter what career you have unless you somehow get lucky and end up a member of the tiny hereditary ruling class.