The Secret To Raising Smart Children Analysis

Having the mind and determination to become successful isn’t an easy task. Success isn’t considered a gift, it should be a hard task to achieve and it matters how it is accomplished. Success

Reading the article Lake and von Baeyer (2005) “Tips for Successful Students”, I realize that most characteristics are necessary for one to succeed as a student in any area of life. For example, one must ask questions and take notes in order to interact with the professor and further their knowledge in a particular subject. These two skills coincide together along with the initiative to achieve a certain stardom. One aspect of learning is never lonesome, though it is possible to be additionally gifted in one region over another.

Read Lake and von Baeyer's article, “Tips for Successful Students." Also, review the characteristics of a successful student as explained in the lecture. As you consider these, which is your strongest characteristic? Why? How will this characteristic help you to become a successful student in your program of study?

Do you think intelligence is a fixed trait? If you do, then you might be one of many people with a fixed mind-set. In Carol S. Dweck’s an essay, “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids”, she describes fixed and growth mind-sets. She describes how they affect school, and how they affect social relationships as well. The two central ideas of “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” are that fixed mind-sets can make a person shy away from a challenge and that growth mind-sets can be put into place by parents.

After reading Seal’s article which stated that Americans often thought kids are born smart while Asians more often believed that studying makes a person smarter, I was reminded my own personal beliefs on intelligence and I realized that I have thought people could get smart by exerting effort since I was in the last year of elementary school in Vietnam. Therefore, I empathized with Seal’s attitude that success and achievement are a result of working hard. I could remember that I got this attitude when I was in an important final exam which decided where my middle school was in the next year that depended on my score. In this exam, the math test was an extremely difficult test for every student because it had a strange math problem which my classmates and I had never studied before. At first, I had spent for 2 hour to solve this problem, but I didn’t succeed. So, I wanted to give up. However, I was worry about my score and thought about my mom, who hoped that I could get the high score enough to enter a famous middle school. Since I didn’t want to disappoint my mom’s wish, I tried to solve this math problem again and again and again. Eventually, I was successful to solve

I feel that in order to achieve personal success in our society you need 3 key things. For one, you need to have determination. In our culture, we seem to have a universal ideology along the lines of “keep going, and you will succeed eventually.” I feel that these idea’s are incredibly true, and have been shown to be effective every time. A good example of this trait in one of the texts we read is in the Odyssey when Odysseus needed to get back home, and despite the odds being against him, he never gave up. He always kept going, and when the going got rough, he got back right up and started over again. Another trait is intelligence. Because we have gone away from warrior culture in modern times, academic success is more than mandatory to achieve

In “The Secret Of Raising Smart Kids”, Carol S. Dweck suggests overpraising children may be counterproductive. Effort, not intelligence or ability, is the key to success in school and life according to the article. Dweck claims there are two views of intelligence, “growth mind-set” and “fixed mind-set”. “Fixed mind-set” is when a student believes that intelligence is a fixed trait and losses confidence when errors are made attributed to their lack of ability. “Growth mind-set” thinks of intelligence as something that can be developed through education and difficult work. Instead of praising a child for their intelligence she suggests giving them a pat on the back for effort. Also, Dweck states that children can develop a “growth mind-set” through a workshop involving a series of study skills sessions and classes on how to apply a “growth mind-set” to school work. I find it hard to agree with Dweck’s claims that there are only two views of intelligence, a proper way to praise, and proposes a child can make up their own mind-set through her workshops.

Most people subscribe to the belief that Paul Tough refers to the cognitive hypothesis that suggests that success depends primarily on cognitive skills. They argue that intelligence is measured based on IQ tests which include the ability to recognize letters, words, detect patterns, and calculate. They say that the simplest way to acquire and develop skills is through practicing them continuously. Children should also begin practicing as early as possible to nurture skills. However, in the book titled “How Children Succeed,” Tough introduces the character hypothesis which explains that non–cognitive skills such as self-control, curiosity, self-confidence, conscientiousness, and grit are crucial to achieving success than sheer brainpower or cognitive skills (Tough 49). To justify his argument, he uses research findings from psychologists and neuroscientists. They say that character is developed by encountering with failure and overcoming it. The hidden power of character explains why some children perform well while others fail. However, I say that linking grit and character is pervasive and unfair to kids from poor backgrounds; particularly when the author states that academic proficiency is not a determinant of future success. The big point on Tough’s main arguments is that children succeed with character and not test scores.

Success comes from self-determination, motivation, and hard work – that was the message I received from reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell helped me understand that the outliers mentioned in the book didn’t gain their success easily. Some may have had lucky opportunities and where born in the right year, but they had to work hard, they were smart, and out of their achievements, they made an impact on society. Prior to reading Outliers, I was lost among the success of others because I thought these people came from wealthy families, which meant they had a head start, but I was wrong. Success has a different meaning to everyone, but the commonalities of success are the advantages and opportunities given to us.

“The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” by Carol S. Dweck is about the development of a child’s mentality when it comes to their self-confidence as well their capability of learning and working hard. Dweck informs the reader that there are two types of children and people in general when it comes to learning as well as growing. One group are the helpless people and one group are those with a growth mindset. Whether a person falls into the helpless or those willing to grow greatly impacts their success as well as their future.

Most people in today’s society define success as someone who makes a lot of money or has done something important to help form today’s society. People such as Bill Gates or Donald Trump are considered successful because they have lots of money. Even actors whose lives are wrecked and destroyed are considered successful because of the money they have. Others, like Thomas Edison, are considered successful because of accomplishments they achieved in their lives. Thomas Edison, for example, created the light bulb, so most people would consider him successful. In his book, Think & Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill gives 13 steps on how to have the right mindset, attitude, and ability to become successful.

Being a successful student may involve some of the characteristics such as: organization, time, studying, and believing you can achieve.

Everyone can be successful in life but it requires some responsibilities. Success doesn’t happen right away, so it takes time and patience’s for things to fall into place. To have a successful life you must work hard to get where you want to be, it can’t just be handed to you for free. One thing is to never give up on your goals or dreams you want to achieve. When you accomplish great things in life it feels great. A successful student needs to use self-discipline and making wise decisions.

The first step of success is organization.Organization is a very important part of the process leading to success. Therefore, without it you cannot achieve anything. You have to organize your life. By organizing your life it means that you know what you want, you do not get distracted, you have good relations with everybody. This part is very important in the organization step because if you do not have an organize and stable life, it will affect your education. For example, I have a friend who failed his exam because of the problems he had with his girlfriend. After that failure, he decided to forget all and focus on his studies. He got better and passed his exam. The second part of the organization step is the planning. To succeed, you have to have a good use of your time, make sure you do everything you have to do and do not forget anything. For that, you have

Throughout my life, I’ve realized my definition of success has been through achieving my goals to serve others and ultimately never stop learning. My work ethic and character traits have contributed to reaching my goals in high school and will prepare me for the future.