The highlighted pages above are from In Praise of the F Word by Mary Sherry and The Power of Believing that You Can Improve by Carol Dweck.
I normally annotate text with a highlighter, because it shows up better than underlining and circling. When reading through or listening to texts I highlight the spots that have significance to me or to the overall message of the story. I didn’t take any notes on the side, but I can explain why I marked these spots. I also try not to highlight too much of the text, even though most of it has significance. I really just take the most important parts.
In Praise of the F Word by Mary Sherry I highlighted the words “meaningless diplomas”. This comes right out of the first paragraph and sets the tone for the rest of the article. These words struck me, because they are almost too harsh… Do some graduates really get meaningless diplomas? In the next paragraph I selected parts that talk about skills that should have been taught in high school and how many graduates don’t have them. She describes this by saying that these people will believe they were “cheated by our educational system”. In the third paragraph it did not surprise me to hear that when students were asked to write about an unpleasant experience in school, they had “no writers’ block”. Next Sherry is explaining that teachers must “get their attention, no matter what distractions may be at hand”. She is referring to the fact that no matter what a student is going through, the teacher must find a way to break through and connect to the student. The next part that caught my attention was, “I don’t move seniors… I flunk them”. This seems very drastic, but maybe it is what needs to be done in order to get kids to participate in learning. These next two quotes are upsetting to read and no one should have to feel this way. “I should have been held back” and “I don’t know how I ever got a high school diploma”. These students certainly feel that their school cheated them of their education. The next highlighted part explains that passing students who haven’t grasped the material “cheats them and the employers”. “Most kids don’t put school first on their list unless they perceive something is at stake”. I agree with that statement, because many kids in my high school felt that way. They had to get good grades in order to participate in all extracurricular activities. These kids also have a “healthy fear of failure”. This also means using a “threat of failure” as “a positive teaching tool”. In order to use this teaching tool, teachers need to ”follow through on their threats” and “parents would have to stand behind them”. Parents often take their child’s side, when they should be with the teacher instead. Kids make a lot of mistakes and parents need to address that. To end this I highlighted “because he might fail” and “because she’s such a nice kid”. Neither of these reasons are good enough to pass a student and they shouldn’t be excuses to do so.
While watching, listening, and reading along to Carol Dweck, the first words that caught my attention were “Not Yet”. Those two words basically summarize the whole Ted Talk. In the second paragraph I loved hearing that some 1o-year-olds said “I love a challenge” and “You know, I was hoping this would be informative”. On the other hand some of these students were “gripped in the tyranny of now”. These two mind sets are just one example of the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. These next two parts were also upsetting to hear. Basically, the fixed mindset learners said they would “cheat the next time instead of studying more if they failed a test” or they would look for anyone “who did worse than they did so they could feel really good about themselves”. I would never want either of those thoughts in my head. The next few highlights are what really hit home with me. They made me wonder if I had a fixed mind set. The parts I selected about this were “obsessed with getting A’s”, “getting the next A or the next test score”, and “constant validation”. I hate to admit it, but I love constant validation and knowing that I’m doing something right. I also love getting A’s. This Ted Talk has made me want to change some of these thoughts. Next, I wanted to focus on praising kids for “their effort, their strategies, their focus, their perseverance, their improvement”, because it “creates kids who are hardy and resilient”. Another great point is to “push out of their comfort zone” to “get smarter”. The students in this English class are already experiencing this with me by participating. I really loved this next paragraph about “equality”. The selected parts explain that with the growth mindset, even in as short of time as “in one year”, can make “equality happen”. “Before, effort and difficulty made them feel dumb, made them feel like giving up, but now effort and difficulty, that’s when their neurons are making new connections, stronger connections. That’s when they’re getting smarter”. This is what I hope happens to all students and learners. I hope they take challenge and difficulty and use it to their advantage. I agree with Dweck, “let’s not waste any more lives”. Growth is a “basic human right for children, all children”. I want to “live in places filled with yet”.
