What Does It Mean To Be Smart

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Journal Entry 1

Over the course of this previous week, reflecting back on what I learned about jobs, intelligence, value, and mindsets, I believe the most important and interesting was about fixed and growth mindsets. After learning about true and successful intelligence, and what it really means to be smart, I've re-evaluated my previous learning and educational experiences and thought about what it really means to be intelligent. Thanks to the lectures given in class, they have really opened my eyes to the unknown about what school really does to young minds, and what we go through. One particular topic I remember was when my professor said how the education system is really setting us for the worst and how we're all “screwed” when …show more content…

We should welcome failure as an opportunity to do better, failing at something is not the end, like Professor Hoyo said, to many of us who have been told, “you're so smart” instead of, “good job, you're a great hard worker”, failure seems to discourage us and scare us. We don't want to disappoint the people around us and let them think less of us because we failed at something or let them think we're not smart anymore. When I heard this, I automatically knew what she was saying was true, because I have been through it before. When I got home that day, the words still fresh in my mind, I automatically told my six year old sister, “Good job Viviane, keep up the hard work”, I said it out of nowhere and she was confused, but I didn't want her to be like me and push away failure. I want to change her mindset and I don't want her to think she has a fixed amount of intelligence when she grows up. I want her to be able to see failure as a way of learning and set the pace for growing. She needs to know, as well as myself, that we have the capacity to grow intellectually and increase our knowledge through effort and hard

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