Reading Response 3

Intellectual humility is a term that is often neglected amongst high school students. It is defined as “recognizing the limits of one’s knowledge and valuing the insight of someone else.” This concept is dismissed by most students as everyone strives to be the best and “top of the class,” yet in reality, this is not the case. In The Benefits of Admitting When You Don’t Know, by Tenelle Porter, it is evidently described that it is a major cultural issue in which people do not accept nor do they admit their mistakes. It is ignorant of any human to not own up to their mistakes and dogmatize other’s mistakes. 

The idea of growth versus a fixed mindset struck me and intrigued me. Growth mindset is the belief that one’s intelligence is constantly changing and improving, while fixed mindset is the belief that you either have intelligence or you do not. With this idea fresh in my head, I was able to connect in to the article Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds, by Elizabeth Kolbert. People tend to shut down when their ideas are refuted. This is because people’s growth mindset set them up in situations to oppose and dismiss others opinions and beliefs due to their belief that there is only one right answer and no creativity is allowed. 

Growth versus fixed mindset is apparent in sports. From experiencing it first hand in tennis to watch it with my own eyes watching other sports, such as football, baseball, basketball, and more, I realize a fixed mindset is degrading to other teammates and even for the person themself. For example, in tennis, people think there is one “good and right” way to hit a forehand or serve, but really there are infinite ways to hit a forehand or serve. You are not defined as good or not just depending if one person thinks you hit the right way. It astonishes me that people are so stubborn and fixed on one right answer, one right way to hit, or one right way to be socially accepted that they do not take the time to step back and admire someone else’s uniqueness and different self. I have come to some concluding questions which are, how do we learn intellectual humility and how can we get out of the fixed mindset and a growth mindset? I will dwell on these questions and consider ways that, as a society, we can work to help build each other up and move away from fixed minsets.