You’re smart vs. you’ve worked hard

I was recently reminded that it was 60 years ago that I started college. I had graduated high school holding a full-tuition scholarship to any college in New York State’s network due to a high test score on what was called the Regents Exam, which every high school senior in NY was given a chance to take.

I was considered to be very smart. I had been told that I was ever since elementary school days.

Back then my class were annually given a series of IQ tests. Only the highest scorers took the test the following year, and so on and so on. By the eighth grade, only about six of us were being tested. I was deemed “gifted” and my parents were asked if they wanted me to be sent to a special school for that. They said no.

High school classes were a breeze. I listened in class, took good notes, and never studied, but frequently made the honor roll without much effort. And no one was surprised when I received the scholarship – hey, I was smart!

College was NOT a breeze. I had no study habits. I regrettably entered the math curriculum and was confounded by basic calculus. I was much more interested in girls and being on the track team than I was about any of my school work. I had become used to being able to pass everything without opening a book. College work was a task I wasn’t up for.

I wound up flunking out and joining the Navy, where once again I did well on their aptitude and intelligence tests. I was asked if I would like to go to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. I turned it down, figuring college was not for me.

The point of all this historical info is that being smart, and constantly being told that I was, seemed to work against me. I make that claim bolstered by study results I recently read about and which I feel I align with.

In this study, two groups of gifted children were the subjects. One group would do well and be told that they were so smart. The other group did well and was told that their hard work had really paid off. These different conveyances were carried on through years of testing and development.

You might guess which group wound up being more successful in their later endeavors. Having the idea that it was the hard work that made the difference was a mighty motivator.

I can see how important that kind of encouragement can be. I think it applies in schooling, sports development, family life and even the workplace.

Being told I was especially smart made me think I had the only tool I needed to succeed. It’s akin to telling a little girl only that she is so pretty or a boy that he is so handsome. If that is all that they think is valuable about themselves, it can skew their approach to life.

I find myself choosing a different method to encourage children. It’s their hard work that is important.

I certainly think my path might have been very different had my aptitudes been handled in a more encouraging way. I don’t lament that they weren’t. I like how my life has turned out – but I sometimes wonder what I might have accomplished with a different attitude about myself.

Ken Klingenmeier, a longtime reviewer of local theatre productions, occasionally opines on other topics.