question I always ask when I see data like this is: If the idea of giftedness is harmful to adults to this extent, what does it do to young children?
The idea of giftedness is not only inaccurate and damaging; it is gender and racially biased. We have many different forms of evidence showing that those who believe in fixed brains and giftedness also believe that boys, men, and certain racial groups are gifted and girls, women, and other racial groups are not.
One of the forms of evidence that shows this clearly was collected by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, who focused his attention on google searches.19 His study revealed something very interesting and disturbing. He found that the most commonly googled word following “Is my two-year-old son …” is “gifted.” He also found that parents search the words “Is my son gifted?” two and a half times more than the words “Is my daughter gifted?” This is despite the fact that young children of different genders have equal potential.
Sadly, the problem is not limited to parents. Daniel Storage and his colleagues conducted analyses of anonymous reviews on RateMyProfessors.com, and they found that students were twice as likely to call male rather than female professors “brilliant” and three times as likely to call male rather than female professors “geniuses.”20 These and other studies show that ideas of giftedness and genius are intertwined with racist and sexist assumptions.
I am convinced that the majority of people who have gender or racial biases do not think about them consciously or perhaps even realize they have them. I also contend that if we were to dispel the idea that some people are “naturally” gifted and instead recognize that everyone is on a growth journey and can achieve amazing things, some of the most insidious biases against women and people of color would disappear. This is needed in the STEM fields more than anywhere else; it is no coincidence that STEM subjects evidence the strongest fixed thinking and the starkest inequities in participation.
Part of the reason so many students are dissuaded from thinking they are capable of learning math is the attitudes of the teachers and professors who teach them. I have now met a few amazing mathematicians who devote large parts of their lives to dispelling the elitist ideas that pervade mathematics. University mathematician Piper Harron, one of my own heroes, is one of those people. On her website, called The Liberated Mathematician, she writes: “My view of mathematics is that it is an absolute mess which actively pushes out the sort of people who might make it better. I have no patience for genius pretenders. I want to empower the people.”21 It is wonderful to have voices like Piper’s to help dispel the myths about who can achieve in mathematics.
Unfortunately, there remain too many academics and teachers who continue to transmit false elitist ideas and willfully and openly state that only some people can learn their subjects. Just last week I learned of two examples that are typical. A community college professor started her class by telling the students that only three of them would make it, and a high-school math teacher in my local school district announced to his eager fifteen-year-old students who were placed in his high-level math class: “You may think you are hot shit, but no one gets above a C in this class.” These are the words of elitists who revel in the low number of students who are successful in their classes, as they think it shows that they are teaching really difficult content. It is this sort of thinking and speaking to students that has kept so many amazing people from pursuing pathways that would have been rewarding for them. Such ideas harm people, and they harm the disciplines, because access is denied to the diverse thinkers who would have provided beneficial insights and breakthroughs in these fields.
One of these thinkers was the incredible mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani. The story of Maryam’s life and work appeared in newspapers worldwide when she became the first woman in the world to win the coveted Fields Medal—the equivalent of the “Nobel Prize” for mathematicians. Maryam grew up in Iran and, like many others, was not inspired by school math classes. In seventh grade, Maryam was told by her math teacher that she was not good at math. Fortunately for the world, Maryam had other teachers who believed in her.
At age fifteen things changed for Maryam when she signed up for a problem-solving class at Sharif University in Tehran. She loved mathematical problem solving and went on to study advanced mathematics. During her PhD studies she proved several previously unproved theories in mathematics. Her approach was different from that of many mathematicians, and her work almost entirely visual. The field would be narrower—less rich, visual, and connected—without Maryam’s contribution, one that could so easily have been lost if she had listened to the teacher who told her that she was bad at math.
When Maryam came to Stanford, we found many occasions to meet and discuss mathematics learning, and I enjoyed chairing a PhD exam for one of her students. At age forty, she tragically died. The world lost an incredible woman, although her ideas will always live on and continue to broaden mathematics.
The American Mathematical Society recently devoted the November issue of its journal to Maryam, and one of those reflecting on Maryam’s amazing contribution to mathematics was Jenya Sapir, the doctoral student whose thesis defense I chaired, now a mathematician herself. Here are her reflections on Maryam:
Maryam would paint beautiful, detailed landscapes in her lectures. If she were giving a talk about concepts A, B, and C, she would not just explain that A implies B implies C. Rather, she would paint a mathematical landscape where A, B, and C lived together and interacted with one another in various complicated ways. More than that, she made it seem like the rules of the universe were working harmoniously together to make A, B, and C come about. I was often amazed by what I imagined her inner world to be like. In my imagination it contained difficult concepts from disparate fields of mathematics all living together and influencing one another. Watching them interact, Maryam would learn the essential truths of her mathematical universe.22
The world is filled with cases of people who think differently—often more creatively—and are dissuaded from pursuing careers in sports, music, academics, and many other fields. Those who persist despite the negative messages they receive often go on to achieve incredible feats.
But how many are there who do not go forward, who believe negative judgments and who turn away from fields and dreams? One of the people who thought differently and received extensive rejection is the author of the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling, now the most successful author in history. Shortly after the death of her mother, she was at a very low point in her life; she was recently divorced, a single mother, living in poverty, but she focused on something she cared deeply about—writing. Rowling (also called Jo) sent her Harry Potter manuscript to twelve different publishers, all of whom rejected it.
She began to lose confidence in her book when the editor at Bloomsbury Publishing sat down to read the book; she also gave it to her eight-year-old daughter. The young reader loved it and encouraged her mother to publish it. Rowling’s books have now sold over 500 million copies, and she is a role model for any who face rejection yet believe in their ideas. Today she actively works to end poverty and support children’s welfare. I love many of her words, but this is perhaps my favorite quote of all:
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.
The Problems of Giftedness
The teachers, professors, and parents who maintain that only some people can learn subjects are all reflecting the misinformation of the fixed-brain era. It is perhaps not surprising that so many people still cling to the idea of fixed brains, as most of them lived during the years when this was all anyone knew. The fixed-brain myths have been devastating for students of all ages who have been written off in schools, classrooms, and homes, millions
