Drive

A lot of the "Drive" article made sense and spoke to my teaching sensibilities. I loved the idea of giving students autonomy, helping kids see the big picture, turning students into teachers, etc. But the idea that most spoke to me came from the "praise" section:

"Praise effort and strategy, not intelligence." I absolutely loved this quote! One of my favorite quotes is by Albert Einstein, who says, "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." I know I'm an idealist whose ideas are not always all that practical, but I can't help but thinking that Albert Einstein did something right here.

As teachers, we have to find the way to find and bring out the genius in all of our students---whether they read at the second grade level or whether they can decipher Ulysses. It doesn't matter. And to be honest, while it's an idea that I've always liked, it's always an idea that I thought was easier said than done.

Praising effort and strategy over intelligence seems like one pretty decent, simple step in helping me bring out the genius in all my students. I have to make sure to help them find their own internal genius, not transcribe some farfetched concept of it onto them.