only one hemisphere, and told them about the operation she underwent to have half of her brain removed. We also described her recovery and how the growth of the other hemisphere had shocked doctors. Hearing about Cameron inspired our middle-school students. As they worked over the next two weeks, I often heard them say to each other, “If that girl with half a brain can do it, I know I can do it!”
So many people harbor the damaging idea that their brain is not suited to math, science, art, English, or any other particular area. When they find a subject difficult, instead of strengthening brain areas to make study possible, they decide they were not born with the right brain. Nobody, however, is born with the brain they need for a particular subject. Everyone has to develop the neural pathways they need.
Researchers now know that when we learn something, we grow the brain in three ways. The first is that a new pathway is formed. Initially the pathway is delicate and fine, but the more deeply you learn an idea, the stronger the pathway becomes. The second is that a pathway that is already there is strengthened, and the third is that a connection is formed between two previously unconnected pathways.
These three forms of brain growth occur when we learn, and the processes by which the pathways are formed and strengthened allow us to succeed in our mathematical, historical, scientific, artistic, musical, and other endeavors. We are not born with these pathways; they develop as we learn—and the more we struggle, the better the learning and brain growth, as later chapters will show. In fact, our brain structure changes with every different activity we perform, perfecting circuits so they are better suited to tasks at hand.7
The Fixed-Brain Message
Let’s imagine how transformative this knowledge can be for the millions of children and adults who have decided they cannot learn something—and for the teachers and managers who see people struggle or fail, and decide they will never succeed. So many of us believe or were told by teachers that we were incapable of learning in a particular area. Teachers don’t impart this idea to be cruel; they see their role as providing guidance on what students should or shouldn’t pursue or study.
Others give this message to be comforting. “Don’t worry if math isn’t your thing” is, tragically, a common refrain heard by girls. Other students receive this message through faulty and outdated teaching measures, such as the separation of young children into ability groups or an emphasis on speed in learning. Whether it is through the educational system or in conversations directly with educators, far too many of us have been conditioned to believe that we don’t have the capacity to learn. Once people get this terrible idea in their heads, their learning and cognitive processes change.
Jennifer Brich is the mathematics lab director at California State University San Marcos. She lectures in mathematics as well as directing the center. Jennifer works hard to dispel the damaging beliefs that her students hold about mathematics and their brains, one of very few university-level mathematics teachers doing so. Jennifer used to think that “people were born with certain talents, and you were restricted to those talents.” But then she read the research on brain growth and change. Now Jennifer teaches the research on brain growth not only to her own students, but also to graduate students who teach other classes. Teaching the new science can be difficult, and Jennifer tells me that she gets a lot of pushback from people who want to believe that some people are born with math potential and others just don’t have it.
A few months ago, she was sitting in her office going through emails when she heard the sound of sobbing coming from the office next door. Jennifer describes paying attention to the sound and then hearing the professor say: “It’s okay. You’re a female. Females have different brains than men, so you may not get this right away, and it’s okay if you don’t get it at all.”
Jennifer was horrified and took the brave step of knocking on the door of the other professor’s office. She poked her head in and asked if she could talk to the male professor. She discussed the incorrect messages he was giving with him, which caused him to get upset and report Jennifer to the department chair. Fortunately, the department chair was a woman who also knew that his messages were incorrect and supported Jennifer.
Jennifer is taking on the myths about math and learning, and she is just the person for it. She recently told me about her own challenging experience of being discouraged by a professor when she was in grad school:
I was a grad student, finishing my first year. I had started some research for my thesis. I was doing great; I was working really hard and getting good grades. I was in this class, it was topology, and it was really challenging for me, but I was working really hard, and I had done really well on an exam. I was really proud of myself. We had gotten the exams back, and I had gotten like a 98 or something, really close to perfect. I was so happy. Then I flipped to the back of the exam, and there was a note from my professor that said to see him after class. And I was like, “Okay, well maybe he’s excited too.” I was so happy and proud of myself.
When I sat down in his office, we began this conversation about why I wasn’t cut out for math. He wanted to know if maybe I cheated or memorized, to do so well on the exam. He pretty much told me that he didn’t think that I was a mathematician, that it shouldn’t be my future, and encouraged me to consider my other options.
I told him I was starting my thesis that summer and what my grade point average was. So he pulled up my grades and saw that I did both undergrad and my master’s there. Then he pulled up my grade record and started looking at some of my grades. And he just kept asking me questions that all implied that I didn’t earn those grades myself. It tore me apart when he did that, because he was a man I respected, someone I thought was so smart, who was very well known in the math department, very respected. A lot of the male students loved him. After that I went to my car and cried, I was so upset. I just bawled my eyes out.
My mom’s a teacher, so I called my mom. When I reported the conversation, she of course got really defensive and angry. She told me to really just think about it and think about people who do well in math and why they do well. And she made me think about all these different things. I think that was the planting of the first seed that really helped me to start to understand what a growth mindset is. And following that, luckily the fierceness in me kicked in, and the feistiness, and I used that to motivate myself to do even better in that course and in my career. And I made sure to give that professor a big smile as I walked across the stage at graduation.
Jennifer’s encounter tells us of a person, a professor responsible for students’ lives, who believes that only some people belong in mathematics. Sadly, this professor is not alone in his incorrect thinking. The Western world, in particular, is filled with the deeply ingrained cultural belief, pervasive in all subject areas and professions, that only some people can be high-achievers. Many of us have been told this, and we have been conditioned to believe it. Once people believe that only some can reach high levels, it affects all areas of their lives and stops them from choosing fulfilling pathways. The belief that only some people can be high-achievers is insidious and damaging and prevents all of us from reaching our potential.
When teachers and others give people the idea that they don’t have the brain to learn something, it is because they do not know or they refuse to accept the new scientific evidence. More often than not these are STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) teachers and professors, an issue I will return to. I think of these people as stuck inside the “fixed-brain regime.” It is not surprising that so many people are stuck inside this negative place. The neuroscience showing brain growth did not become established until about twenty years ago; before that everyone believed that people were born with certain brains and those brains never changed. Many of the teachers and professors inside the fixed-brain regime have not seen the scientific evidence. University systems of reward mean that professors are most valued for publishing in scientific
