The Myth of the Accelerated Track
In a video posted on Scrum.org the day before this post, Jeff Maleski talks about Building Resilient Teams. He presented to the audience the conclusion of Carol S. Dweck’s book Mindset that intelligence is trainable, much like a muscle in your body. He gives a personal account of a discussion with his mom about her school days where students were divided into a regular track and an accelerated track based on the results of a test. This was based on a systemic belief that children were either advanced or not and it was a fixed trait.
I experienced the same testing and subsequent division in middle school, and I’m afraid this false dichotomy directs many young people to believe they are as smart as they will ever be. If you are essentially told your intelligence is below average, imagine what you withhold from yourself for the rest of your life. Anything that you imagine is only achievable by a “smart person” is out of reach and you will settle on something less for yourself. This is a tragedy that has been propagated through the public education system for decades!
Knowing that empirically we can, in fact, increase our intelligence is a crucial first step to self-improvement. If you see a direction to go and believe there is ground you can cover to get there, you can target your weak areas with practice and feedback and make progress. As for me, I started this blog with a few goals in mind, but one reason is that I want to get better at writing. When people compliment me on my drumming talent, I assure them they could do the same if they practiced at it as I have. I intend to achieve the same result by writing often. Over time I will see progress and, as I get feedback, my skill will improve.
What is something you’ve always wanted to be good at but felt it was for “smart” or “talented” people? Have you felt it was simply out of reach and you could never achieve it? I encourage you to set aside old myths about fixed intelligence, to begin from where you are, and just start doing it.