A Day in K-1: December 2015

The kids are all growing by leaps and bounds in the K-1s. They are stretching themselves daily, reaching above and beyond their limitations, and learning new things. Yes, there are frustrations at times, but we talk about frustration being a normal part of growth. Kids can easily get bogged down by feeling they "can't do it." My response is always the same - you can't do that YET.

This brings us to the all-important idea of the growth mindset. Children generally tend towards one of two types of mindsets – a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. Praise that focuses on intelligence promotes a fixed mindset, which is the belief that intelligence cannot be changed in any meaningful way. Children with a fixed mindset believe that they are born with certain character traits and a fixed amount of intelligence and creativity, and that nothing they do can alter that.

In contrast, praise that focuses on effort ("You’ve worked really hard on that!") promotes a growth mindset, which is the belief that intelligence can grow and be strengthened with effort. Children with a growth mindset believe that they are capable of achieving what they want if they put in the time and effort to get there.

A growth mindset will supercharge their capacity to learn and grow. We know that for certain. I'm seeing this over and over again in the classroom. We've been taking on some challenging work, and often kids get frustrated when things are not easy for them. Recently, after a challenging morning writing animal poetry (that left a few children feeling frustrated), we sat down together and I explained the growth mindset to them in a way they could understand.

"Imagine that in your brain are billions of tiny light bulbs. There is a light bulb for everything you could ever do. There’s a dancing light bulb, a math light bulb, a crossing the monkey bars light bulb, a writing light bulb, a riding-a-bike light bulb, a cooking light bulb, a reading light bulb …. You get the idea. The thing is, they only turn on when you do what they are there for, so not all of your light bulbs will glow all the time.

If you never ride a bike, for example, the riding-a-bike light bulb won’t glow at all. The first time you ride a bike, that light bulb will glow just a little bit. The more you ride your bike, the brighter the riding-a-bike light bulb will glow. It might take a lot of practice before your riding-a-bike light bulb is as bright as your teeth-brushing light bulb, but when it is as bright, you’ll be just as good at riding a bike as you are at brushing your teeth.

Of course, your teeth-brushing light bulb is very bright because you brush your teeth every morning and every night! When it comes to riding bikes though, you might fall off a few times but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be great at riding bikes. It just means that you’re not good at riding them yet. You’re still charging up that light bulb."

This idea of a light bulb charging up and glowing the more it is used has resonated deeply with the children. A particular boy said to me this week, "My reading light bulb is really starting to glow. I'm getting better every day!" Another boy, out at recess this week, said, "Wow, my monkey bars light bulb is so strong! I can now cross the monkey bars!"

Every time something is hard for the kids, I use this expression. It helps them to actually visualize their brain getting stronger by the day, and they're encouraged to keep going. Intelligence is not fixed and can be flourished with time and effort. Nurturing this belief in children is one of the greatest things we, as the adults in their lives, can do to help lift them so they can reach their full potential. The effort will come from them, but it’s important that we do what we can to have them believe that the effort will be worth it.