Homework for 2/1

Both Dweck and Lukianoff and Haidt argue that the way that students are thinking is putting them in either a fixed or growth mindset. In “The Power of Believing You can Improve,” Dweck worries about how the students are being taught and whether they are in a solution-based environment or a critical thinking-based environment. Is the school focusing on the result or the process when confronting a challenge?  She argues that the way we teach our students to go about the learning process is ultimately affecting the way they confront difficult challenges.  According to Dweck, when the education system begins to reward the result more than the process, students begin to “run from the error. They don’t engage with it” (Dweck 1:57). For Dweck, the problem is in the way we teach students to go about their education. In contrast, Lukianoff and Haidt argue that this is about students putting themselves into a fixed mindset and therefore forcing school faculty to do so as well by limiting the language and ideas that can be addressed. For Lukianoff and Haidt, “students who call for trigger warnings may be correct that some of their peers are harboring memories of trauma that could be reactivated by course readings. But they are wrong to try to prevent such reactivation” (Lukianoff and Haidt para. 37).   For me, while I share Dweck’s belief that the way in which we teach students to learn and attempt challenges should be focused more on the process rather than the outcome, I also agree with Lukianoff and Haidt’s approach on the fact that if we limit the students learning criteria by adding trigger warnings, we will push their mindset further into a fixed one and altogether prevent their growth. A balance between mental health awareness and education needs to be established in order to prepare every new-coming generation for adulthood. Exposing students to the difficulties of life and unwelcoming subjects can help them develop more progressive thoughts and ultimately help change the course of our future for the better.