Selective Schools or Not?

                                                                     Quick Write
I was asked if I thought smart kids should get their own classes like the kids in Stuyvesant or Bronx Science and personally I say "No" because it can just make other students feel less intelligent but then again I feel that classes should be separate but both should give challenging work. Put yourself in the shoes of a "Smart kid" how would you feel if you had classes with a "not so smart kid"? would you feel not so smart or would you feel superior in intellect? Now put yourself in the shoes of a "Not so smart kid", how would you feel being in a class with a "Smart kid"? would you feel inferior or would it motivate you to work hard and become one of those "Smart kids"? some may even say that tracking in education really has nothing to do with intelligence but rather race.

"On the surface, whether to group by ability is a debate about best practices in education. But in practice, the discussion inevitably revolves around race and equality. This is because, predominantly, the students in low-track classes are minorities and low-income." This came from the National Journal

                                                                         Summary

   We basically discussed if there should be selective schools, what kind of impact would they have on "smart" kids and "not so smart" kids with growth and fixed mindsets.                                                                            

Identifying Claims

                                                                    Quick Write
What in your mind is the best Invention ever created? I don't know if you can say that music was invented but if you could say so then i believe that music was the best invention known to mankind.  I say this because music is one of the best ways for one to help identify his or hers own feelings, melodic tones and lyrics can be used to better express ourselves.

                                                         Summary of Today's Lesson
Reading "The Truth About Ability And Accomplishment", Chapter Three of The Mindsets, Doctor Carol S. Dweck  talks about achievements, why some people achieve more and others less, and how the growth mindset ties into it.  One of the interesting claims that was made was that kids with fixed mindsets, when entering Junior High showed a decline in school opposed to kids with growth mindsets who achieved more. She compared kids with growth mindsets to Thomas Jefferson, Darwin, Mozart, and George Dantzig, a graduate student from Berkeley.  All who's curiosity drove them to work hard and achieve even more.

Why don't people trust their own judgement?

Someone asked "Why don't people trust their own judgments?" Well my answer to that is, why should we? nothing is guaranteed. Nobody can be right 100% of the time. I believe that our own experiences shape our judgements. What we face or go through and how we handle those things are a part of how we perceive things. A person who faces harder times feels the world is always against him/ her, their mindset will most likely change from growth to fixed. I mean if you feel nothing good ever happens in or comes out of your life than why would you trust what you think when you cant even believe in a better situation for yourself, Right?...
After reading the article, my opinion did not change much but only got stronger. I still believe we can change how we are even though there are certain aspects that we cannot change but if we try and motivate ourselves to do better than we can still succeed. Maybe we will not reach our specific goals but we might even accomplish something more and gain recognition from people we never even expected.