WORDS OF WISDOM 2018
A growth mindset Each year, Churchie invites OP 1 students to return to school for the Headmaster’s OP 1 Assembly. This annual tradition honours the achievements of our graduating cohort and inspires all students to seek academic excellence. On Thursday 21 February 2019, OP 1 scholar and 2018 Dux of the School Max Powell delivered the OP 1 Assembly Address to the Senior School.
So, yet another year has begun. Whether you are moving into Year 7 or 12, this week marks a significant moment for all of you boys because it sets the tone for what you are to make of this year. I know well that over the coming weeks you will all be reminded of the importance of goal setting, hard work, balance, organisation and preparation. While these are essential skills in your pursuit of success, I imagine that most of you are all too familiar with them. So, instead of reiterating these values, I would rather reveal to you a powerful, yet less spoken about, quality of all successful people— a growth mindset.
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But before I go further, I would like to tell you a little bit about my time at Churchie. I joined the blue and grey in Year 6. I had to make new friends, although they were easy to come by. Moving from year to year, I quickly learned that there will always be challenges to face in school. With these new challenges, however, came exciting new opportunities: joining sporting teams, picking senior subjects, playing an instrument. Over 12 years of schooling you learn a lot. What you realise is that everything that happens, for better or worse, shapes the man that you will become when you graduate. Looking back, you realise that every moment changed you in some way. Everything that Churchie offers you— amazing teachers, sporting programmes or cultural experiences—will make you a better man, and I urge you to seize them. That said, if you were to leave here today remembering only one thing, it would be to understand the importance of a growth mindset. When we observe people who are successful, we see their ‘outer workings’: how they study tirelessly, always ask teachers for help, stay on task, and are organised. The truth is that when we try to do the same, we are misguided. We don’t necessarily see what it is that drives them to do what they do.
This driving force is what’s called a growth mindset. A mindset is a sort of self-perception, such as believing that you are either ‘intelligent’ or ‘unintelligent’. We can be unaware of our own mindset, and yet it can have a profound effect on learning, skill acquisition and many other dimensions of life. In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, such as their intelligence or talent, are fixed traits. It’s the belief that talent creates success and, thus, little time is directed towards training intelligence. When students with fixed mindsets fail at something, they tend to tell themselves they can’t or won’t be able to do it, for example, ‘I just can’t do algebra’. Alternatively, a growth mindset is understanding that your abilities improve through your hard work. If you continue to apply yourself, you will continue to get better. Brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a resilience that is essential for success. Students who embrace a growth mindset—the belief that they can learn more or become smarter if they work hard and persevere—will view challenges and failures as opportunities to improve their learning and skills.
