The college bribery scandal raises the concern that overprotected young children are ill-equipped to face challenges. Here’s advice from Rachel Simmons, co-founder of Girls Leadership and the author of Enough As She Is: How to Help Girls Move Past Impossible Standards of Success to Live Healthy, Happy, and Fulfilling Lives for raising a self-sufficient child.
SEL Home » Resources in the category: GROWTH MINDSET (PERSEVERANCE, ENDURANCE, BRAVERY)
“The Power of Believing You Can Improve,” Carol Dweck at TEDx
Carol Dweck a pioneering researcher in the field of motivation, explains growth mindset, the idea that we can grow our brain’s capacity to learn and to solve problems. In this talk, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it—or have you just not solved it yet? A great introduction to this influential field.
16 Habits of Mind (PDF)
From the Institute for Habits of Mind, whose goal is to create a more thoughtful, cooperative, compassionate generation of people who skillfully work to resolve social, environmental, economic and political problems.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
“One of the most influential books ever about motivation.”—Po Bronson, author of NurtureShock
Growth Mindset Chart (PDF)
A chart that uses the language of growth mindset to encourage children to love effort and change negative language and attitudes toward difficult tasks
How Big is My Problem? (PDF)
A great chart to help children differentiate big problems from little ones.
A Mindset for Learning by Kristi Mraz and Christine Hertz
Kristi Mraz and Christine Hertz provide practical and powerful strategies for cultivating optimism, flexibility, and empathy alongside traditional academic skills. Great lessons on teaching kids, or adults, how to become lifelong learners.
Growth Mindset Toolkit for Parents
TransformEd supports educators and education systems in equipping students with the Mindsets, Essential Skills, and Habits (MESH) they need to succeed in college, career, and life.
The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires (ages 3-7)
For the early grades’ exploration of character education, this funny book offers a perfect example of the rewards of perseverance and creativity.
The I’m Not Scared Book by Todd Parr (ages 4-6)
With his signature blend of playfulness and sensitivity, Parr explores the subject of all things scary and assures readers that all of us are afraid sometimes.
What Do You Do With a Problem? by Kobi Yamada (ages 5-10)
A story for anyone, at any age, who has ever had a problem that they wished would go away. It’s a story to inspire you to look closely at that problem and to find out why it’s here. Because you might discover something amazing about your problem…and yourself.
Your Fantastic Elastic Brain (ages 4-8)
This fun and engaging introduction to the anatomy and functions of the brain will empower each young reader to S-T-R-E-T-C-H and grow their Fantastic, Elastic Brain!
Kazoo magazine, Issue 08: The Magnificent Mistakes Issue (ages 5-10)
Kazoo is an ad-free, award-winning magazine for girls. This issue focuses on the importance of making mistakes and features women experts from Senator Elizabeth Warren to NASA engineer Laurie Grindle. There’s an amazing comic about Julia Child and how she made mistakes all the time and just kept going.
It’s OK to Make Mistakes by Todd Parr (ages 5-6)
Embraces life’s happy accidents, the mistakes and mess-ups that can lead to self discovery. Makes readers feel good about themselves, encouraging them to try new things, experiment, and dare to explore new paths.
Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beatty and David Roberts (ages 5-8)
A hilarious, irreverent book about doing your own thing. Meet Iggy Peck—creative, independent, and not afraid to express himself! Iggy Peck will delight readers looking for irreverent, inspired fun.
Rosie Revere Engineer by Andrea Beatty and David Roberts (ages 5-8)
When her great-great-aunt Rose (Rosie the Riveter) comes for a visit and mentions her one unfinished goal—to fly—Rosie sets to work building a contraption to make her aunt’s dream come true. But when her contraption doesn’t fly but rather hovers for a moment and then crashes, Rosie deems the invention a failure. On the contrary, Aunt Rose insists that Rosie’s contraption was a raging success. You can only truly fail, she explains, if you quit.
Ada Twist Scientist by Andrea Beatty and David Roberts (ages 5-8)
Champions girl power and women scientists, and brings welcome diversity to picture books about girls in science. Touching on themes of never giving up and problem solving, Ada comes to learn that her questions might not always lead to answers, but rather to more questions. She may never find the source of the stink, but with a supportive family and the space to figure it out, she’ll be able to feed her curiosity in the ways a young scientist should.
Superfail by Max Brenner (ages 8-11)
Twelve-year-old Marshall wants to be a superhero, but his powers always go wrong. He can shoot lasers from his eyes, but they either miss the target or cause more damage. And when you have severe motion sickness, flying is no fun. Marshall and others like him are referred to as “defectives.” But when the villainous Man With No Name tries to destroy the city again, Marshall and The Night Owl, a retired crime fighter, must team up to work with the powers they have, redeem themselves, and save the day.
