The skill of learning is something kids can and should practice if they want to have a fighting chance at fulfilling all those lofty goals their parents have set for them.
But some people keep studying — and thinking — the same way all their lives.
Thankfully, cognitive science has taken a look at how people actually learn. The results are surprising and super helpful.Mistakes should be celebrated and studied.
Being optimistic helps you succeed.
Stressing kids out with negative reinforcement can get them stuck in a mental rut, filling them with self-doubt and anxiety, both of which are toxic for learning.
"Anxiety precludes you from exploring real solutions and real thought patterns that will come up with solutions," says Harvard Business School professor Alison Wood Brooks.
Decades of positive psychology research suggest that we will become more successful in just about anything we try to do if we approach it with an open mind and see tangible room for improvement.
Parents should teach kids to see learning as exploration. It will help give them a sense of determination, which they can manufacture into grit when the going gets rough.
Exciting topics are "stickier" than boring ones.
Kids naturally drift toward the weird and wacky, but as the rote experience of education gets them thinking in cold hard facts, that sense of fun can die off.
Parents: don't let that happen.
As early as possible, kids should gain an appreciation for why they remember Grandma's weird-smelling house and those highlighter-yellow shorts Dad wears on nighttime runs. It's because they're unique.
Author and former US memory champion Joshua Foer memorized a full deck of playing cards in under two minutes by tying each card to a weird image. Kids can do the same for their times tables and presidents.
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