Growth Mindset

I’ll admit I’m not much of a basketball fan.  Maybe it’s because I’ve always been short and never felt I could be any good at the game (fixed mindset), but I’ve not had much interest in the sport. However, it’s hard to ignore what our Golden State Warriors have done in the last month.

I watched last night’s Warriors game, and as they fell behind by more than 20 points to the Los Angeles Clippers, I turned the game off- figuring an early bedtime would be more beneficial than watching the Warriors lose their first game of the season (again, fixed mindset).  Imagine my surprise as I drove into school this morning, only to hear that the Warriors came back, and won the game by 7 points!  Listening to the radio analysts trying to explain how the Warriors accomplished the feat, they used terms like, “perseverance”, “hard work and effort”, “belief in themselves” and “a will to never give up”.  It made me wonder if the Warrior coaching staff had the team read Carol Dweck’s book on mindset.  Those terms the analysts used described a growth mindset- a belief that you can accomplish your goals by hard work, effort, and grit.

Why would I write to you about a basketball team?  The correlation to a NBA team and our students is pretty clear.  Our job is to continue to instill in our students the growth mindset attitudes.  The next few days give us a golden opportunity to facilitate those attitudes with our students.  As report cards come out today, every student and parent will receive feedback on student accomplishments towards goals (standards).  While all of our students will receive feedback on areas of strength, there will also be areas where all of our students need to grow.  A fixed mindset could cause a child to take on an incorrect assumption; that they may simply be “no good” at math, or writing, or science.  As parents and educators, it’s important to point out that an incorrect assumption that a student cannot improve in an area is simply that- incorrect.  The truth is: we ALL can get better and improve in multiple areas of our lives.  We are never stuck being “bad” at math, a poor writer, or even a horrible basketball player.  Through hard work, effort, learning about ourselves, and an attitude that we can improve, we ALL can get better and better and better.

One of the many aspects of being an educator that I love is the idea that learning is life-long.  Some learning comes easier to us (like a Stephen Curry 3 pointer).  Some learning is more difficult.  But, we must always believe that improvement is possible.  And, we must accept that the road to improvement is often paved with hard work and occasional failure.  We are all a work in progress!   If we put in the work, accept the challenge, acknowledge that setbacks are part of the process, and commit to never giving up, then there’s very little that we cannot accomplish.  The Warriors are just one example for us but the world is filled with so many.  Many examples of success despite long odds are present in our Springer community.  We can all learn from each other.  We can all adopt a Warrior growth mindset.

It is my sincerest hope that you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Wade Spenader- Principal