Pray that your children’s teachers were…

masterers rather than testers.

There is widespread belief that individual differences in intelligence are innate and unmodifiable. Psychologist Carol Dweck discovered that some children have performance goals. They want to do well on tests. Other kids have mastery goals. They want to encounter things that they can’t do and to learn from failure. The result is that children with mastery goals learn more, and get smarter, than the other children. So is intelligence fixed? That depends on whether you believe it’s fixed. The more that people believe it’s fixed, the more fixed it will be.

About the author

Harry is a ferociously good natured eccentric in Duluth Minnesota who detests traitors dressed up as Uncle Sam. You can find somewhat better edited writings of his at the Duluth Reader "contributors." page. The URL is:

https://duluthreader.com/contributors/h/84/284-harry-welty