-By Jaime Willis
James Stigler wanted to understand why Asian students perform so much better than American students in mathematics. In his book, Learning Gap, Stigler mentions the impact of variables such as instructional time (both per day and length of the school year) and curriculum, but he finds that attitude is a large factor in Asian students' success.
Asians, it seems, have placed a high cultural emphasis on hard work as the path to achievement. So when an Asian student tackles a math problem beyond their level of comprehension, they work and work and work at it until they understand the problem and can solve it. They believe that the only thing that stands in the way of their success is just doing the work.
Americans, on the other hand, have placed a high cultural emphasis on skill and talent. So when an American student tackles a math problem beyond their level of comprehension, they believe that they don't "have what it takes" to do that type of math. In fact, an American student will work at the problem no more than 5 minutes on average before giving up, while the Asian student will work for 30 minutes or longer on the same problem.
Two University of Illinois psychologists, Carol Diener and Carol Dweck, did a similar study in 1978. They found that children who attributed their failure to complete a task to 'lack of ability' did significantly worse at achieving tasks of all difficulty levels than children who attributed their failure to 'lack of effort.'
Even further, the study showed that when they taught children to disassociate failure with lack of ability/talent, the students were able to improve their success rate.
Malcolm Gladwell had a similar conclusion in his book Outliers. He discovered that innate talent and ability was something of a misnomer. In one study, which we've mentioned before in our workshops, Gladwell found that the best violinists in the world were not the ones with the most innate ability, but simply the ones with the most practice time in.
For every single amazing achievement you can think of, there is someone out there who was able to make that happen despite their lack of innate talent or ability. I think of Eddie Izzard, an actor and comedian, who was able to run 43 marathons in a row (one per day) with very little advanced training. I think of Carl Brashear, who became a Master Diver in the Navy as an amputee after twenty-two YEARS of working toward his goal.
So when someone tells me, "I could never do that," I want to scream. SCREAM. "Yes, you can!" The only thing that is truly stopping you is YOU. The path to your "impossible" achievement may take time. And encouragement. And heartbreak. But you CAN achieve anything you set your mind to.
Believe it. Achieve it.
"Impossible is Nothing."
- Adidas
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| Two performers in Cirque Du Soleil's Ovo |
Asians, it seems, have placed a high cultural emphasis on hard work as the path to achievement. So when an Asian student tackles a math problem beyond their level of comprehension, they work and work and work at it until they understand the problem and can solve it. They believe that the only thing that stands in the way of their success is just doing the work.
Americans, on the other hand, have placed a high cultural emphasis on skill and talent. So when an American student tackles a math problem beyond their level of comprehension, they believe that they don't "have what it takes" to do that type of math. In fact, an American student will work at the problem no more than 5 minutes on average before giving up, while the Asian student will work for 30 minutes or longer on the same problem.
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| Esperanza Spalding - 2011 Grammy Winner |
Even further, the study showed that when they taught children to disassociate failure with lack of ability/talent, the students were able to improve their success rate.
Malcolm Gladwell had a similar conclusion in his book Outliers. He discovered that innate talent and ability was something of a misnomer. In one study, which we've mentioned before in our workshops, Gladwell found that the best violinists in the world were not the ones with the most innate ability, but simply the ones with the most practice time in.
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| Aron Ralston, survivor |
So when someone tells me, "I could never do that," I want to scream. SCREAM. "Yes, you can!" The only thing that is truly stopping you is YOU. The path to your "impossible" achievement may take time. And encouragement. And heartbreak. But you CAN achieve anything you set your mind to.
Believe it. Achieve it.
Wonderful post. Thank you. I read something years ago how kids usually decide their calling around age 5, and all it takes is one idiot adult to say how the kid can't do it for the dream to fall apart. We should concentrate much more on effort than on talent.
ReplyDeleteErica - Thanks for your comment! The upside to the idiot adult comment is that it only takes one adult to tell a kid they CAN do something for them to keep the dream alive. :)
ReplyDeleteYes! It's all about the work! And stick-to-it-iveness when it just seems like you're not getting any better, or you're not figuring it out. If you stay with it, just push through that wall, you'll get there. I know from getting back into dance about 1.5 years ago, after not having taken class in about 5 years, that it was hard. I would take a class, try to learn the combo, but not being able to grasp it, I'd stop dancing, cry in the back of class, and walk out with my head low. But I came back the next day! Maybe I tried an easier class to give my self-esteem a boost, but eventually, I was back in the advanced classes, trying new styles, and doing double (and sometimes triple!) pirouettes. We'd all love to be instantly amazing at something, but it's not realistic. I think that's a huge problem in our society, as you pointed out. If we can be an expert in 5 minutes, well then, we will never be. We need to start emphasizing that hard work + time = accomplishment. Thanks for sharing, Jaime!
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