Praise the Effort

We continue to look for ways to give your child reinforcement and recognition.  Again we dip into Carol Dweck’s book

Mindset.

If you want to give meaningful positive reinforcement, consider this.

Dweck sent four research assistants into the New York school system’s fifth grade classrooms.  One child from each class was selected to participate in a nonverbal IQ test consisting of a series of puzzles that were easy enough for all the children to do with relative ease. 

Once finished, the children were randomly placed in one of two groups. 

In one group each child was praised for their intelligence...“You must be smart at this. “ 

In the other group each child was praised for their effort...“You must have worked really hard.”

Next the two groups were given a choice of tests.  Each group was told they would learn a lot from attempting the puzzles, and some were easy and some were hard.

Of the students in the group who were praised for their effort, 90% chose the harder set of puzzles.  They used perseverance, and exercised confidence in their determination to see how much could be accomplished.

Of those who were praised for their intelligence, the majority chose the easy test.  Why?  In part, these students received praise for being smart before they were challenged to demonstrate their true skill level. 

Praise your child for making an effort.   As an adult, I still appreciate that kind of recognition.

Order MINDSET by clicking HERE

Carolyn Biggs

Did I Win?

Skill development is not a race to see who comes in first.  Skill development is all about best effort and learning along the way. 

Our two annual performances, Ivories and Ice Cream and New Years, New Tunes  are more about demonstrating what has been learned so far – never about outperforming another student. 

Again this week we dip into Carol Dweck’s book.  She says

this …

“’Did I win?  Did I lose?  Those are the wrong questions.  The correct question is “Did I make my best effort?’”

Carol continues … “If so, if you made your best effort, always remember this.  You may be outscored but you will never lose.”

I really like that.  It’s all about “best effort". 

Help develop this concept in your child and you will instill a lifelong, valuable character trait.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

The Value of Challenges

Carol Dweck, Ph.D., author of Mindset (a highly recommended read) offers this quote:

“If parents want to give their children a gift, 

the best thing they can do is to teach their 

children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.  

That way, their children don’t have to be slaves 

of praise.  They will have a lifelong way to 

build and repair their own confidence.”

~Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

We live in an age when it seems children often receive false praise because that is the "nice" thing to do.  According to Carol Dweck, Ph.D., this is a gross mis-representation of real- life experiences as an adult. 

Of course we want to build the self-esteem of our children, but in the rush to do so we zoom past the more critical learning process that cultivates problem-solving skills and a core foundation of working hard to achieve our goals.  Most of life’s goals are not easily accomplished.

I've never known a musician who played perfectly from the beginning of their musical career.  Making mistakes is an inevitable reality. 

By teaching children how to put forth a true sense of effort

we can raise up a generation of smart, capable individuals who are able to reason out perplexing problems, embrace challenges and navigate difficult places in life. 

Order YOUR copy of Mindset - Click Here

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

A Library Card and a Musical Instrument

There is more to music education than meets the average eye.  In the book Lighting Their Fires by Rafe Esquith, we

find some intriguing thoughts.

In response to the question “Why is music education important?” he answers, “Children don’t seem to be paying attention as well as they once did.” 

There is a corollary between the physiological mechanics and the human skill development when you include some kind of musical training. 

Mr. Esquith continues: 

“When a child plays music, they are learning about something that has nothing to do with music.  They are learning about focus, about listening to others, about making mistakes and correcting them.  All of my musicians do better in math, science and all other areas of school once they start playing music.”

And in a great summation, he says, “Give your student a library card and a musical instrument and your child is set for an extraordinary life.”

 Order Lighting Their Fires HERE

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

The Food of Love

"If music be the food of love, play on."

~Rafe Esquith

Okay...please bear with me for a brief moment while I climb on my soapbox. 

Somehow, our educational system has determined that when money is tight the easiest thing to erase from the budget is creative arts...music, drama, visual.  (It often becomes an "elective" - which means students have to choose to extend their school hours in order to participate).  When that happens the implications deeply impact every student in it’s' wake.

I'm off now.

I picked up a new book this week; Lighting their Fires, by

Rafe Esquith.  It is inspiring and renewing my love for teaching music.  Perhaps you've heard of it.  

Mr. Esquith, a fifth grade elementary school teacher (of 25 years), is having a tremendous influence on the students he teaches.  His methods are not according to the whims of educational administrators.  But his passion for helping kids learn core life skills is transformational.  And, by the way, he believes much of that learning occurs through the arts. 

I LOVE that.

So, hopefully there's enough summer reading time left to fit in one more book.  I believe it will provoke important thought and conversation on behalf of those amazing children you nurture daily.

That's the beauty of art--we strive 

for perfection  but never achieve it.

The journey is everything.

                                                                 Rafe Esquith   

Carolyn Biggs

Order Your Copy HERE

Precision Targeting

How many times have you heard your child practice a musical passage and struggle with the same spot time and again?  We all have, and without some focused attention on the problem it rarely improves.

Consider this:

After a few attempts on a troubling passage, make a game out of having your child work only on those measures that are troubling.

Follow this pattern

Slow it down

Repeat it ten times perfectly

Put it back into the music with the measures before and after – in tempo.

This is called “Precision Targeting” and it works very well, however, to insure their participation be prepared to give something in return.  Offer a spurt of your time and enjoy playing with them!

Have fun and watch what happens.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

If They Can Do It, So Can I

I am a huge fan of allowing your student to watch other’s perform in their field of interest, especially young students near their own age.  The principle is simple – if they can see someone like themselves performing with excellence, then they just might grasp more of a vision of their own success on their instrument or in their sport. 

That is why performance without competition is an important developmental experience.  When we had our Ivories and Ice Cream event in June I was amazed at the width of musical presentations.  We had some students in their infancy performing their pieces to their absolute best, and then we had more experienced students performing to their best abilities on more challenging pieces.

It boils down to this – “If they can do it then I can do my own version of it.”

Be sure and expose your student to great video clips and live performances as often as you can.  Great role models model.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student