“stupid” difficulties
Feb 4th, 2008 by qofe
If you’re reading this, and you have kids… don’t ever, under any circumstances tell them that they are stupid. If they make a mistake, or several — then educate them… tell them they’ve made a mistake and mistakes are how we learn. But do not ever, ever tell them they are stupid, make fun of them, or otherwise make them feel inconsequential in their ability to improve their own lives.
I am sitting here reading a book, a programming book I’ve had in my possession for some time, with a bookmark placed where I left off reading. At one point I just stopped reading it… and I wasn’t sure why until tonight.
I’ve got great reading comprehension, always have — but because this is a book on programming somehow it set off a math-trigger thing. Afraid I’d find out that I didn’t understand it, that I was too “stupid” to understand it, so I just stopped.
Now that I’ve started reading it again, I realize, I understand it! I am smart, I can comprehend, I can still learn. It was really hard to write “I am smart” just then really hard. It should not be so difficult.
