Article: 6 Things You Learned in School that Don’t Apply in the Real World

I really liked this post from the PersonalExcellence.co blog:

6 Things You Learned in School that Don’t Apply in the Real World

The post provides a great list of things that are NOT TRUE but which you might think are true, given the way school usually works:

1. Failure is disastrous
2. It’s better to work alone
3. There’s always a right answer
4. Someone will tell you what you need to know
5. Education only happens in school
6. Only what’s in the syllabus is important

Be sure to read the original article to get some great insights into each of these items and why they are NOT true, and how you really need to get rid of those assumptions if you want to pass the test of life itself!

In that spirit, I thought this would be a great graphic to use to illustrate this blog post; it comes from Paul Bogush's blog.

And as my online buddy (and prolific author) Nathan Lowell remarks: "I didn't give final exams in my classes. I just told the students: There will be a test, but I'm not going to be giving it. It'll come sometime after you graduate. Good luck."

Article: Kids of Helicopter Parents Are Sputtering Out (Slate)

Link:
Kids of Helicopter Parents Are Sputtering Out (Slate)

Recent studies suggests that kids with overinvolved parents and rigidly structured childhoods suffer psychological blowback in college.
By Julie Lythcott-Haims

Quote:

Madeline Levine, psychologist and author of The Price of Privilege, says that there are three ways we might be overparenting and unwittingly causing psychological harm:

• When we do for our kids what they can already do for themselves;
• When we do for our kids what they can almost do for themselves; and
• When our parenting behavior is motivated by our own egos.

Levine said that when we parent this way we deprive our kids of the opportunity to be creative, to problem solve, to develop coping skills, to build resilience, to figure out what makes them happy, to figure out who they are. In short, it deprives them of the chance to be, well, human.

Video: The power of believing that you can improve (10 min.)

I found this TED video at a Mind/Shift article: Why Talking About the Brain Can Empower Learners.

The power of believing that you can improve

by Carol Dweck
READ THE TRANSCRIPT

One of the themes of the talk is transforming the meaning of effort and difficulty: "In one study, we taught them that every time they push out of their comfort zone to learn something new and difficult, the neurons in their brain can form new, stronger connections, and over time they can get smarter."

Video: The Power of Yet: Janelle Monae and the Muppets (3 min.)

I found this Sesame Street video from YouTube at this Mind/Shift article: Preschoolers and Praise: What Kinds of Messages Help Kids Grow?

Janelle Monae - The Power of Yet