Perils Of The Growth Mindset Summary

While comparing Sources 1 and 2, Gerber argues that the primary issue in the current current curriculum being far to large so students graduate with useless credits. Then, Leef claims the primary cause of student graduating with gaps in their knowledge is about not all schools in our current time cover all four pillars of education which are, Mathematics, Sciences, English and History. Their primary disagreement seems to be about the particular cause of failure, Leef claims it’s because that schools don’t cover all the pillars of education while Gerber brings it down a problem in curriculum.

In his argument, Gerber argues by simply narrowing down the curriculum it will improve student success after college, then Leef disagrees because he brings

It implies the system needs to change, not the kid themselves. In particular, Kohn presents the argument that in modern day society we want to move kids to having a incremental mindset from a fixed mindset. As Kohn explains it in the intro of his article, “There's something disconcerting about how the idea has been used -- and about the broader assumption that what students most need is a "mindset" adjustment.”(Kohn 1#). In other words, presenting the idea that simply changing a students mindset will solve all the problems with them is simply absurd. Hence, this explains a change in the system, not just the students. Although, some people believe that is on the students to fix themselves simply because there’s nothing wrong with the system, explaining we just don’t look for errors. Kohn makes several references to Dweck’s work about the growth mindset in psychology, not education so the whole growth mindset can’t be entirely applied to the education field. Khons points out the flaws of even some educators in this aspect “Even some people who are educators would rather convince students they need to adopt a more positive attitude than address the quality of the curriculum” as another group of people that might disagree with his argument. But Kohn insists that in modern day education system the professors make students cram forgettable facts into their short term memory, and a lot of the time the students aren’t consulted about what exactly their learning even though as Kohn states “Genuine excitement about (proficiency at) learning rises when they're brought into the process, invited to search for answers to their own questions and to engage in extended projects” which explains that learning isn’t simply about a student mindset but have real interest in learning what is provided for them. In summary, Kohn’s