“Why did you sauté the cauliflower in pickle oil?” questioned my daughter. I had done a small variation to the usual cauliflower dish I prepare. The dish tasted different and nice for me, not for my daughter. I was wondering if the pickle oil made it bad or the knowledge about pickle oil made it bad!
The book by Carol S Dweck, Mindset, was an eye popper for me. It highlighted to me about my fixed mindset displayed during most part of my life here on earth. I had/have a fixed mindset based on my beliefs and assumptions during my interactions and very rarely I came with an open mind to understand or do what I wanted. Dweck reiterates that it is normal to be a growth and fixed mindset person and that too even during a single interaction. I didn’t much buy it lest I became a fixed mindset of trusting Dweck and not questioning her rationale.
One of the areas I started work on was understanding how students learn or rather not learn the way I wanted. I was a firm believer that failing students don’t have any intention to learn. Reap the benefits and place blame on failures was my mantra. Another eye popper was when one of my supposedly failing student asked me, “If I wanted to fail, do you think I would spend one year on failing?”. I had no answer to this student. I started blaming other factors, like the goals set, teachers, curriculum, environment, friends, and what not…
Now my favourite pastime is to identify the type of mindset my kids display when we interact. I get always checked for my fixed mindset, which we consider as not the ideal set. Or is it?
What is your mindset?
Note on Comments: If you don’t want to share your details, use Name as Anonymous and email address as [email protected]. All comments will be moderated. Logging is not required to comment.