Why Beliefs Are Extremely Crucial To Success
Understanding the pygmalion effect
I wish I could remember the exact source of this story, but I know from memory that I read it and it’s actually true. Here’s how the story goes. There was a woman teaching in an inner-city school. The inner-city school was notorious for the things inner-city schools are notorious for — lack of resources, overworked teachers, and ultimately failed students.
And most people wouldn’t blame the students for doing so poorly in their school work. After all, look at their environments. They were destined to fail, right? Well, not according to this teacher. Instead of coddling her students or trying to dumb down the material so that they’d get it, she simply demanded more of them.
She had grade school students reading advanced literature well above their grade level. A class that formerly was full of failing students now had students who excelled beyond the wildest expectations of everyone except for the teacher.
Sadly, you can see how the exact opposite scenario might play out. Across the country, there are certainly a bunch of students who fail because of low expectations from their authority figures. No one expects them to succeed, so they don’t. And this is a problem we have in society as a whole. This is a problem I’ve continued to talk…
