jinian | smart kid's dilemma

As someone whose therapist laughed at her yesterday when she said she wasn't as quick as she had been as a kid[*], I have considerable grouchiness toward this article on the effects of kids' believing they're smart.

"Those afflicted with this lack of perceived competence adopt lower standards for success and expect less of themselves" is totally the opposite of what they're talking about in the beginning paragraphs. I have high standards for success, that's why I don't want to do badly.

I also think this is an oversimplification -- "They’d chosen to look smart and avoid the risk of being embarrassed" -- though it might be true in this specific case. If there was substantial effort involved, that effort was just invalidated by the teacher implying it came easily to them. If it did feel easy to the kid, they might have lost interest in addition to wanting to stay "smart".

I do think the methods can work, and that teaching kids about effort and intellectual development can be empowering, but like

mrissa in another conversation I don't think "you tried so hard" ever went over well with me when I hadn't.

(Also the brain is not a muscle; metaphor must be rejected in favor of simile when your subjects are that close together.)

They're oversimplifying self-esteem, too. You can feel good about one part of yourself while feeling bad about other parts.

[*] "You think you're getting stupider?! ... You're not old enough for that." Surely the IQ tests, which have been declining since age 5, prove this. It really is a lot fucking harder to learn now. I have to put in effort instead of just having things stick.