My Mindset about the Growth Mindset

Although I have not heard of Carol Dweck specifically before, I have heard of the growth mindset, specifically as it relates to education. I find it to be a fantastic conceptual idea; unfortunately, the institutions we have in place in the educational sphere are not conducive to its implementation.

Having a growth-mindset is something that I'm really trying to work on, but sometimes, I'm not entirely successful. In order to stay in school, I need scholarship money, and for better or for worse, scholarships generally reward those who succeed in a fixed-mindset way (read: a 4.0 GPA is usually more compelling to a scholarship committee than a lower GPA with an explanation that, although you didn't perform at the same level as other students, you learned something important). I currently actually have a scholarship that requires me to keep a perfect GPA in order to renew the award, meaning that the classes I take are carefully vetted in order to ensure that I'm able to earn an A in the class. This sometimes keeps me from taking classes that might be fascinating and growth-oriented, but absent some degree of confidence that I can get an A, I can't logically take the class.

I think what I've learned at OU is that you have to balance attempting to have a growth-mindset with the realization that the world around you isn't fully, or even mostly, committed to the same pedagogical ideology. Classes like this are a rare chance to explore without fear of grade-based retribution, but by design, they can't be the norm. 

I wouldn't necessarily be interested in learning more about the growth-mindset, as I believe that its basic tenets are pretty easy to grasp, and I'd rather spend time delving into the Indian Epics we have to study. That being said, I am hoping to apply some aspects of the growth mindset to my LGBTQ Movements class. By understanding the stories and actions of the people that came before me, I hope to grow personally in order to better understand my role as an activist. 

Finally, if there's one area of my life where the growth-mindset is omnipresent is in the intersection between academics and my friends. My best friend is also the person that challenges me the most and is constantly pushing me to be a better version of myself. It is in honor of him that I have the image below. He's a pretty rocking person.

Growth- Mindset meme created by Laura Gibbs
Source: Growth Mindset Memes