Gabby Leahy
Professor Cripps
English 110B
27 September 2019
Growth and Fixed Mindsets
When faced with a challenge do you stand up to the opportunity to conquer it or do you run away and settle for less than? Based upon the answer you chose that you feel like describes you the best you display either a Growth or Fixed Mindset. A person with a Fixed Mindset has a fear of the unknown and being wrong or seen as less than so they settle for less than. A person with a Growth Mindset is open to a new challenge or concept that may seem out of their comfort zone and see it as an opportunity to prove that they can overcome it and use their problem solving skills to solve it unlike the Fixed Mindsets who have a higher tendency to be uncomfortable or “triggered” by new ideas and run from them instead.
Over the past few weeks we have been assigned to read multiple articles and a TED Talk debating Fixed and Growth mindsets and the current problems higher education and learning seem to face. Both the speaker Carol Dweck and the authors Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff can be compared for their similar views of Growth and Fixed mindsets. While Haidt and Lukianoff don’t specifically say their thoughts on the mindsets they still are able to provide an idea as to why an individual may steer towards one over the other. In Dweck’s TED Talk she provides a solid argument as to why Growth Mindset is a skill that everyone should carry and how you can really be successful in your education and future life just by practicing it and understanding that your “ideas can be developed”. Dweck also emphasizes that having a Fixed Mindset can often set you up on the road for failure. Her biggest piece of advice in this talk is about praising people, “we can praise wisely, not praising intelligence or talent. That has failed. Don’t do that anymore. But praising the process that kids engage in, their effort, their strategies, their focus, their perseverance, their improvement. This process praise creates kids who are hardy and resilient.” If you set a kid up to work hard and praise them for those actions and determination they’ll be more apt to develop this growth mindset.
In “The Coddling of the American Mind.” Lukianoff and Haidt give examples of what Dweck refers to as a fixed mindset or people that run away from a challenge or uncomfortable situation instead of facing it head on. “The Coddling of the American Mind,” authors also offer what they and others believe to be solutions to those with a fixed mindset. One of the major and controversial solutions mentioned is trigger warnings. Trigger warnings can be a very useful tool, especially if used in a classroom where a topic might spark a big debate or someone to be uncomfortable but due to the rising amount of people offended so easily many of these warnings are not necessary but must be used. The authors describe these people as trying to “…. scrub campuses clean of words, ideas, and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense.” The TED Talk and readings also brought up the debate on whether or not how someone is raised or the society they are raised into contributes to the mindset they develop and how they choose to learn. A good example of this is the way you were raised and if you were challenged for rewards or if they were just handed to you. I believe that trigger warnings are good to a point and you need to warn people of what’s to come but there is a big difference between that and sheltering them and I also agree that this stems back to how an individual was brought up. If you were brought up sheltered by the world you’re going to try to live within that shelter and never expose yourself to something that may be uncomfortable which prevents you from having that Growth Mindset.
Another solution that ties into my own opinion that I briefly touched upon is featured in our most recent reading, “The Differences Between Coddling and Safe Spaces” by Michael S. Roth. He debates the issue of keeping people safe but also teaching them things they need to know and where to draw that line. The main problem issue that arrives by allowing these safe spaces to be more than what they’re needed to be is coddling. Many people and students in the current generation are constantly coddled beyond the extent of what’s needed and turn a blind eye to things they should be exposed to either because of the society they were raised in or even their parents. Even if you don’t agree with a topic or you believe it makes you uncomfortable doesn’t mean you should just ignore it, there are some topics that have to be discussed and that you can’t keep in the dark because they’re too prominent in our world. Basic safety and precautions are understandable but there is a fine line and it needs to be drawn, you can’t hide from the real world forever, at some point you have to deal with it.
