Book Notes: Mind in the Making
Ever since my daughter was born, I’ve started reading a bunch of parenting / education books. And with each book I read, I become more convinced of the learner-driven model we’re building at our Acton Academy. One of my favorite reads from the past couple years is Mind in the Making by Ellen Galinsky. This book details the seven essential skills our children should be learning. It provides a blueprint with ideas for how to make sure they pick up those skills.
The seven skills Galinsky highlights are:
Skill 1: Focus and self control involve many executive functions of the brain, such as paying attention, remembering the rules, and inhibiting one's initial response to achieve a larger goal.
Skill 2: Perspective taking calls on many of the executive functions of the brain. It requires inhibitory control, or inhibiting our own thoughts and feelings to consider the perspectives of others; cognitive flexibility to see a situation in different ways; and reflection, or the ability to consider someone else's thinking alongside our own.
Skill 3: Communication Communicating well involves executive functions of the brain—for example, reflecting upon the goal of what we want to communicate and inhibiting our point of view so that we can understand the viewpoints of others.
Skill 4: Making Connections: Think about your most recent “aha” moment—when you suddenly understood something that you didn’t understand before. Chances are this “aha” moment involved seeing a new connection. You can help children see connections in their everyday lives by playing matching games and asking how two things are the same or different.
Skill 5: Critical Thinking: At its core, critical thinking is the ongoing search for valid and reliable knowledge to guide beliefs, decisions, and actions. Like the other essential life skills, critical thinking develops on a set course throughout childhood and into adulthood, but its use must be promoted. And like the other skills, critical thinking draws on executive functions of the brain. It parallels the reasoning used in the scientific method because it involves developing, testing, and refining theories about “what causes what” to happen. Even when you’re watching television with your kids, opportunities abound for helping them learn to think critically. When they see an ad, ask them what they think the advertiser is trying to sell, whether the ad is effective (do they want to buy the product?), and how they can find out whether the advertiser’s claims are true or false.
Skill 6: Taking on Skill Challenges: We need to help them learn to take on challenges. Carol Dweck has found that children who avoid challenges have a fixed mindset: they see their intelligence as a fixed trait and therefore are reluctant to undertake challenges that “stretch” them. Children who are willing to take on challenges have a growth mindset, seeing their abilities as something they can develop. Children with a growth mindset do better in school. Dweck has also found that if adults praise children’s efforts—“You are working hard!”—rather than their intelligence—“You are so smart!”—we can help our children learn to “love challenge.”
Sill 7: Self-directed, engaged learning
I read this book this past August, after I had made the decision to delay the opening of 360 Academy by one year. As difficult as the decision was, reading this book made rejuvenated my enthusiasm for the work ahead. The essential skills for the 21st century laid out by Galinsky are completely aligned with Acton’s learner-driven approach. Acton brings together the best of education research and the microschool nature of the schools keeps them flexible and adaptable.
This book, while long and often a slow read, is filled with details about each one of these skills and lays out exactly how to develop those skills among kids. It will remain on my reference bookshelf for many, many years to come.