Our Limitations

I went to a primary school parent teacher meeting last night for my daughter. I was interested in particularly in the rating my daughter received for her behaviour in class. Every school report until now she received an ‘Excellent’ rating. This term she received a ‘Good’. Curious, I enquired about this ‘drop’ in rating. The teacher responded that she never likes to give out excellent on anything half way through the year. Do you get the logic behind this? If you do would you mind explaining it to me?

I was immediately reminded of an experiment conducted in 1974 by a school district in Chicago Illinois. You know the type of study, the type that couldn’t be replicated these days because of ethical reasons. One school divided a group of twelve year olds into three different classes. The class was full of high performing students and the teacher assigned to that class was told that ‘great things’ can be expected of the students. The second class was full of ‘average’ students and the teacher assigned was told that some of the students may do well, most will probably be average. The third class was full of the ‘lowest’ performers and the teacher assigned was told ‘just do the best you can!’

True to form at the end of the school year the high performer class achieved the highest results. The average class achieved average results and the low performing class achieved the worst results. The only hitch was all three classes were actually filled with a combination of high, average and low performing students. The conclusion; students can blossom or be stifled by expectations and limiting beliefs of their teachers.

It got me wondering about the impact our limiting thoughts and beliefs can have on the people we interact with every day. What is the impact of expecting less of people based on past behaviour? What could the possibilities be if we expect more from them? Interesting food for thought...