The Growth Mindset : Telling Penguins to Flap Harder ?

Disappointed Idealist

I’m not sure whether this particular blog might lose me friends. It’s not intended to, but I’m going to stumble into an area where I know some people have very strong views. It was prompted by a post-parents’ evening trawl through some blogs, and I came across this blog by Dylan Wiliam :

I’m generally a fan of Dylan Wiliam, although I once tried to joke with him on Twitter, and I’m not sure my humour survived the transition to 140 characters. If I made any impression, it was almost certainly a bad one. Oh well. In any case, it’s not actually his blog on feedback which is at issue here – it’s a good piece, and I agree with the central message about marking/feedback. The bit I want to write about is this :

“Students must understand that they are not born with talent (or lack of it) and…

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Language as a tool of war

It’s not a good idea to argue with your opponent in their mother tongue, even if you happen to know it rather well. Pretend ignorance and force them to speak in your language or order an interpreter. This is the way to defeat them even before the game has begun. The conversation would be so painfully awkward that he would beg you to end it and let you win.

The purpose of arguing is not to arrive at the truth. You don’t care about the truth. You care about winning.

So go and win. Truth be damned.

Never argue in english with an American or British.

Never argue in hindi with an Indian.

Never argue in mandarin with a Chinese.

The way of winning is to go full tribal on your opponent.