Dweck talks about two types of mindset that are seen in many students, a Fixed Mindset and a Growth Mindset. The fixed mindset is when a student runs away when faced with a problem while a growth mindset will find a solution to the problem with a higher level of thinking. Dweck was showing us ways for students to lose that fixed mindset approach and start to find a deeper way of thinking and understanding materials and problems set out in front of them.
Lukianoff and Haidt talk about the coddling that is happening in college campuses and in the workplace. They argue that parents and educators are shielding students from hard conversations and topics that may be upsetting to talk about. Lukianoff and Haidt believe that these conversations need to be had in order to create a better society of people who can have uncomfortable conversations.
Lukianoff and Haidt show, in their article, that students who cannot have hard conversations and are running away from their problems, by saying something is triggering them. This connects to Dweck’s idea of a fixed mindset, these students run away from the conversation instead of finding a way to talk about it.
Growing your level of knowledge and understanding creates a more in depth person. When faced with a problem there are two ways for you to go about facing it; the first is running away because you do not know the answer, and the second is thinking deeper and finding a solution that doesn’t appear right on the surface. Carol Dweck talks about this growth of knowledge and understanding in her TED Talk. She calls this way of problem solving a Growth Mindset, where the student can see the problem and then find a way to fix it. “Some of them reacted in a shockingly positive way. They said things like, “I love a challenge,” or, “You know, I was hoping this would be informative.” They understood that their abilities could be developed. They had what I call a growth mindset” (around 00:35) this is a quote from Dweck that shows what she believes a Growth Mindset is. It is someone who when faced with a problem reacts positively and sees a way to fix the problem. They develop a deeper way of thinking to find the root of the problem, they do not run away from it either. They have a higher level of thinking. Similarly in an article called “The Coddling” written by Lukianoff and Haidt, we see how a Growth Mindset sets apart students on college campuses. They believe that college campuses have become soft, creating this perfect world for students to live in while at school. Hiding them from reality and hard conversations, and when these students are faced with a problem they instantly say that it is triggering them. What Lukianoff and Haidt show in their article is that that mindset is not okay. Both Lukianoff and Haidt agree that a Growth Mindset in a student is what is going to set them apart from other students. “And universities will have reinforced the belief that it’s okay to filter out the positive. If students graduate believing that they can learn nothing from people they dislike or from those with whom they disagree, we will have done them a great intellectual disservice” (Paragraph 57) is a quote from the texting showing that Lukianoff and Haidt believe that hiding these students from these hard conversations is becoming a problem for them. That they will never be able to fully thrive in their environment and society if they hide from the hard challenges that they face in life. The authors are showing us here in this quote that the students who can see around the problems and have these difficult conversations without being triggered by them are the ones that society wants. Society does not want students who are too afraid of confrontation and conversations to be the people that end up running this country. What both Dweck and Lukianoff and Haidt are saying here is that people with Growth Mindsets are the ones that will go far in life, they are the ones that will succeed some day. And in order to have a society full of successful people, we need to enforce this Growth Mindset and help these students develop their knowledge. So that one day they are able to handle whatever the world throws at them.
