Effort

I just watched a re-run of a BookTV interview with Newt Gingrich. I usually agree with this guy but not on his views of how to fix schools. Whenever they say the model of what is wrong is in Detroit then I know they will not be interested in fixing the problems in Idaho schools. They are simply not the same. At the core is an entirely different mindset of the people in those two places. The following approach is more helpful to me.

Carol Dweck's book "Mindset" promotes students moving from a fixed mindset, meaning they presently possess all of the talents and abilities they will ever have, to a growth mindset, meaning their abilities grow with effort, practice, and strategies. (Go to my Mindset blog and click on the links.) What are some of the ways we might encourage students to have a growth mindset?

1. Show them that your successes have come because of effort.

2. Ask them them questions that show that you value growth over fixed mindsets eg. "What mistakes did you make today that you learned from?" (Carol Dweck)

3. Ask them them questions that show that you value growth over fixed mindsets eg. "What did you put the most effort into today?" (Carol Dweck)

4. Make statements that show that you value growth over fixed mindsets eg. When they finish something they are proud of say "Wow, you really put a lot of effort into that!" (Carol Dweck)

5. Be an example of learning from your mistakes eg. President Hinckley saying that if the interview for 60 Minutes didn't go well that he wouldn't put his foot in that trap again.

6. Involve them in meta cognition (thinking about thinking). Talk them through your thinking when you were in a growth mindset.

7. Point out growth and fixed mindset actions in television shows as you watch them together.

8. Help them avoid the TV shows that leave out the work that growth takes. This is most of them since the plot usually has to resolve in 30 minutes.

9. If the TV show makes an allusion to the work, discuss what it would take in real life for that good thing to happen.

10. Pass along family attitudes eg. "Any job is better than no job." (Dad)

11. Display quotes about work by respected authorities eg. “Our primary purpose [is] to set up, in so far as it might be possible, a system under which the curse of idleness would be done away with, the evils of a dole abolished, and independence, industry, thrift and self-respect be once more established amongst our people. The aim of the Church is to help the people to help themselves. Work is to be re-enthroned as the ruling principle of the lives of our Church membership” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1936)

12. “There is no royal road to anything that is worthwhile. Nothing that is deserving of earning or of cherishing comes except through hard work. I care not how much of a genius you may be, the rule will still hold” (J. Reuben Clark Jr.)

13. “Do not ever look down on those who labor in occupations of lower income. There is great dignity and worth in any honest occupation. Do not use the word menial for any labor that improves the world or the people who live in it. There is no shame in any honorable work” (Boyd K. Packer, in Conference Report, Apr. 1982, p. 121; or Ensign, May 1982, p. 84). (Dad was right in line with the apostles.)

14. “There are few things that give me more pain than to see young men and women who do not realize their potential, who do not … discipline themselves into the work necessary to acquire the skills and learning characteristic of a good education. There is too much indolence, too much watching of television, too much sunning on the lawn, too much seeking after pleasure, too much dependence upon the opinions and work of others, too little self-reliance” (Dallin H. Oaks, “The Formula for Success at BYU,” Speeches of the Year, 1979 [Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1980], p. 169).

15. Memorize and sing with your family "Put Your Sholder to the Wheel."

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Immigration

Larry Steimle sent this address to family and friends for consideration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I08lOAHGSoQ
In it is a plea to fix immigration problems. Some obvious solutions might be to strengthen the boarder with guards or fences.... What if instead of stopping them from coming here, circumstances were created to make us want to go there. What are the reasons the flow of immigration from Mexico to the US might be reversed?

1. The economy in our country is worse than theirs
2. The doctors in their country are better than ours.
3. They enjoy greater freedoms than we do
4. Crime is lower there than here.
5. They have jobs and we don't.

O.K. All I've done so far is to reverse the existing conditions. I'm not saying any of these are desirable. However, perhaps they have pushed us far enough out of the rut thinking to consider what might be done to bring one of them to a harmless or even helpful reality. Let's work on #5. In what ways might they make working in Mexico more attractive?

1. Implement Google strategies in the factories.


2. Implement Google strategies in think tank companies.


3. Create jobs that require graduate degrees.


4. Perfect the universal translator.
   
5. Create conditions for a new ice age so the gringos would want to go where it was warm and would bring all of their advances in farming with them.


6. Perfect bio domes for working and living areas. (see picture above)


7. In jobs that required hands only, not a lot of brain work, place monitors above the assembly line that would educate and entertain.


8. Make it so that people choosing the educational assembly lines (see #7) could earn their associates after two years of working there.


9. Make it so that people choosing the educational assembly lines (see #7) could learn about the LDS religion from missionaries while their hands were kept busy.


10. In keeping with the tradition of siesta, make available to each worker a clean, quiet, sleep environment for lunch breaks. These might look like the capsule hotels in Japan.


11. Provide an on-campus Wii workout room.


12. Legalize the monopolies of the U.S. Robber Barron era but impose a system for passing along the wealth.


13. Motivate productivity with carrots not sticks, i.e. reward good work but never threaten job security.


14. Promote socializing by creating cohort groups among the workers and assigning a discussion leader for while they worked.


15. Allow workers to somehow create their own job descriptions.