#chilrdren

Children in studio, mining area of Hillsboro and Kingston, New Mexico

Date: 1885 - 1892?

Negative Number: 076231

By the Beard of Zeus

Great Odin's Raven

Sweet Lincoln's Mullet

Son of a bee sting

Mother of Goats

Julius Caesar's toga

Hey you,

Sorry i havn't had the chance to keep my blog up to date. Over the past few weeks i have spent a great deal of my time delving into various books. I guess they would be considered self help books and i'm ok with admitting that i am looking to better my life through reading.

I am currently reading a book recommend by my friend Owuor Arunga called "The Talent Code" and i wanted to share a piece of research i found to be mind blowingly interesting.

It is in regards to the power of words and how certain words and phrases; although very similar can make a break your future. (I will be giving you the condensed version of the research)

"A researcher named Dr. Carol Dweck gave a fairly easy test to four hundred New York fifth grades. After the test she informed the children of their scores and added a single six word sentence of priase. Half of the kids were praised for their intelligence ("You must be smart at this") and the other half were praised for their effort ("You must have worked really hard"). 

The kids were then tested a second time, but they were offered a choice between a harder test and an easier test and NINETY percent of the kids who'd been praised for their effort chose the harder test and the MAJORITY of the kids who'd been praised for their intelligence chose the easy test.

Conclusive results show that "When we praise kids for their intelligence, we tell them that's the name of the game: look smart, don't risk making mistakes".

The researcher gave the kids one more test that was extremely hard. The priased for EFFORT kids dug into the tests and kept trying to solve the problems where the kids praised for intelligence hated the test and said that, "they took it as proof they weren't smart".

The kids were then given one more test of the same level of difficulty as the first test where they were each given the grade and six word praise. 

The praised for effort kids did 30 percent better, where as the kids praised for intelligence did 20 percent worse!"  The test was then done around the country five more time with identical results."

- Research by Dr. Carol Dweck and words by Daniel Coyle

This not only shows how powerful words are but it also proves that we need to let kids make mistakes and praise them on effort. Our school systems are teaching kids that its wrong to make mistakes and look stupid, yet they are coming out of school un-motivated to do anything with their lives. (I'm not speaking about everyone, pardon me if i sound to vague, but i really get the feeling that most people are unmotivated) We need to go through things slowly and absorb the information in the most efficient way possible. This way we actually remember what we learned before it gets lost in all the other noise we put into our systems.