How an 8-year-old is Motivating Herself Through Advanced Classes

Quietly and inwardly, she whispered it to herself. Afterwards, she gave audible expression to her thought. “I can do this!”, she relayed, had been the thought she had whispered, and which had moved her to attempt the question that appeared to be clothed in difficulty. Which after some time, she correctly answered, without the help that she had thought of requesting.

She might have whispered, “I can’t do it.”, as I have seen many students easily do. But it would have been a lie. And those words, uttered falsely, carry grave consequences. They can stomp through motivation and mental resources.

But suppose she hadn’t been able to solve the problem that day, would it have been truthful to still tell herself that she could do it? I say yes. What was difficult that day, may have not been difficult the following day. Her mental capacities are still expanding.

This is not to say that a student shouldn’t acknowledge when something is hard, nor is it to say that the words, I can’t do it.”, don’t have a place in her reality. But it is often the case that the truth sounds more like, “this is hard, but with well-directed effort, I can become better”, rather than, “I can’t do it.”

So, through truthful self-talk, this eight-year-old is motivating herself to attempt problems that are just within her abilities but further than she’s been before—difficult problems. Problems without which the mind would soon weaken.

Reflections on Effort.

At the close of a recent class the words, “Thank you for your effort today.”, were by me expressed with very little conscious effort. From a place beyond the borders of conscious thought, they found expression, and I was happy they did.

The question, “am I talented?”, seems to me an unprofitable question, and one less closely tied to success. For, “without application the most brilliant talents avail little, while with rightly directed effort persons of very ordinary natural abilities have accomplished wonders.”

So, to teach the necessity of application, has been an all-consuming subject in my thoughts recently. Into it, I have tried to pour my freshest thought. So much so, that I have become blind to genius and seeing to effort in my praise and attentions. Sensibly, we may expect a student’s success, if we can lead him to say, “That which other minds have acquired in the sciences and in the word of God, I will acquire through painstaking effort.”

Wonderfully, Solomon wrote, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might...” The wise man wrote about the necessity of application. And we may apply “whatsoever” to both the work that requires our mind, and that which requires our body.

The two are so perfectly woven together in our being—mind and body. The effort put forth in physical work or exercise increases our capacity for mental effort. A strong body gives way to a vigorous mind. So, students may become great edifices, if their intellectual lives are buttressed by great physical effort outside of the classroom.

However, the body is not the only medium through which we can increase our capacity for mental effort. Thinking itself can impart strength for greater effort. The mind set upon large ideas expands, and mental effort becomes easier, while the mind that is not made to think hard soon loses its strength. Effort both increases our strength and sustains it.

It follows then that the effort we should expect from students is untiring effort. Each day should be met with renewed, and relentless effort. Sleep, that refreshes the mind and body, makes this attainable.

If they have might today, students should be encouraged to work with all of it—success demands it.

References:

Counsels to parents, teachers and Students, EGW

Ecclesiastes 9:10, KJV

Education, EGW

Mindsets by Carol S. Dweck

Let there be thinkers.

Rightly planted, children have potential for vast intellectual growth. And richly grow they must. Thinking is an essential language. For it allows them to think about the thinking of others and to think for themselves. It imparts the special strength that those who learn a language possess. They more ably follow the thoughts of others and tell their own thoughts.

Provided that there are rich, guided experiences on the horizon, mastery will increase with years for those who begin early to learn a language. Let them daily appear, and children will develop, as they informally converse with their parents and later formally converse in the classroom. Similarly, there must be rich early experiences to call out thinking, if thinking is to progressively rise. Let those experiences be absent and students will be as neglected seeds, possessing all that is necessary to become trees, but lacking the rain and light to call out greater forms.

Let there be rain and sunshine. It is within the power of parents and teachers to bring about experiences that develop thinking. We are told that, “It is the work of true education to develop this power, to train young people to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other people’s thought.” (Education page 17)

In his counsels, God has reaveled the experiences that bring about a generation of thinkers. The neglect of those counsels makes way for pitiful, meagre results; but if we’re unreservedly obedient, our “institutions of learning may send forth men strong to think and to act, men who are masters and not slaves of circumstances, men who possess breadth of mind, clearness of thought, and the courage of their convictions.” (Education page 17). This will be true of the home and of the school.