There is a high school in Chicago where students have to pass a certain number of courses to graduate, and if they didn’t pass a course, they get the grade “Not Yet”.
And I think that is fantastic, because if you get a failing grade, you think, I’m nothing, I’m nowhere. But if you get the grade “Not Yet”, you understand that you’re on a learning curve.
It gives you a path into the future. “Not Yet” also gives an insight into how children cope with challenge and difficulty.
For example, if you give 12-year olds problems that were slightly too hard for them, some of them may react in a positive way, they may say things like, “I love a challenge”, or, “You know, I was hoping this would be informative”.
They understand that their abilities could be developed. They have a “growth mindset”.
Other students may feel this is tragic, catastrophic.
From their more fixed mindset perspective, their intelligence has been up for judgment, and they failed.
Instead of luxuriating in the power of yet, they are gripped in the tyranny of now.
So what do they do next? In one study, they said they would probably cheat the next time instead of studying more if they failed a test.
In another study, after a failure, they looked for someone who did worse than they did so they could feel really good about themselves. And in study after study, they have run from difficulty.
Scientists measured the electrical activity from the brain as students confronted an error.
The fixed-mindset students hardly have any activity. They run from the error. They don’t engage with it.
But the students with the growth mindset have the idea that abilities can be developed.
They engage deeply. Their brain is on fire with yet.
They engage deeply. They process the error. They learn from it and they correct it.
How are we raising our children? Are we raising them for now instead of yet?
Are we raising kids who are obsessed with getting As?
Are we raising kids who don’t know how to dream big dreams?
Is their biggest goal getting the next A, or the next test score?
And are they carrying this need for constant validation with them into their future lives? So what can teachers do?
How can they build that bridge to yet?
Here are some things they can do. First of all, they can praise wisely, not praising intelligence or talent.
That has failed. But praising the process that kids engage in, their effort, their strategies, their focus, their perseverance, their improvement.
Just the words “yet” or “not yet,” can give kids greater confidence, give them a path into the future that creates greater persistence. And teachers can actually change students’ mindsets.
In one study, every time they were pushed out of their comfort zone to learn something new and difficult, the neurons in their brain formed new, stronger connections, and over time, they can got smarter.
Students who were not taught this growth mindset continued to show declining grades but those who were taught this lesson showed a sharp rebound in their grades.
This kind of improvement has been seen in thousands of kids, especially struggling students.
In Fiji, there are groups of students who chronically underperform. And they’ve done so poorly for so long that many people think it’s inevitable.
But when educators create growth mindset classrooms steeped in yet, and not call them knuckleheads and other derogatory names, equality happens.
Here are just a few examples. In one year, a kindergarten class in Harlem, New York, scored in the 95th percentile on the national achievement test.
Many of those kids could not hold a pencil when they arrived at school. In one year, fourth-grade students in the South Bronx, way behind, became the number one fourthgrade class in the state of New York on the state math test.
In a year, to a year and a half, Native American students in a school on a reservation went from the bottom of their district to the top, and that district included affluent sections of Seattle. So the Native kids outdid the Microsoft kids.
This happened because the meaning of effort and difficulty were transformed.
Before, effort and difficulty made them feel dumb, made them feel like giving up, but now with effort and difficulty, their neurons are making new connections, stronger connections. That’s when they’re getting smarter.
A teacher received a letter recently from a 13-year-old boy who wrote: “Dear Ms. Dweck, I appreciate that your writing is based on solid scientific research, and that’swhy I decided to put it into practice.
“I put more effort into my schoolwork, into my relationship with my family, and into my relationship with kids at school, and I experienced great improvement in all of those areas.”
Let’s not waste any more lives, because once we know that abilities are capable of such growth, it becomes a basic human right for children, all children, to live in schools that create that growth, to study in schools filled with “yet”.
- Arvind Mani is a former teacher who is passionate about quality education. He lived in the US for 35 years and was actively involved in training youths to improve their speaking skills. The views expressed are the author’s and does not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper. He can be reached at theinspiredteacher9@gmail.com.
