Children Begin Life As Optimists, But Then They Go To School

Learned Helplessness

Although children begin life as optimists, at around age 6, they go to school, where they encounter failure as part of the learning process. Usually, we learn by reading and encoding new information with some level of understanding, and then we attempt to apply that new information to novel problems. By failing, we [1] figure out where the gaps in our knowledge are, and this information guides us when we re-study the original material. Eventually, we master the new information.

The downfall in this process takes place when children give up before they master the new material. Children may attribute failure to something that is stable and probably internal: “I’m just not smart enough to do this.”   When this happens, as can occur in classrooms where grading displaces learning, researchers often say that a child has learned to be “helpless.” Children who acquire learned helplessness, even if it is specific to some domain, then move beyond the reach of many teachers and their grade-based incentives.


Scientific Secrets for Raising Kids Who Thrive

P. Vishton


I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth. ~ 3 John 4

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