Handicapping Yourself

Recently the New York Times ran a health article about self-handicapping.  Self-handicapping is one way to lower expectations and protect your ego.  The way you do it is to make a disclaimer before attempting a task where failure is anticipated. 

I’ve done this unconsciously for years; I’m always quick to say that I’m not good in math, poor at navigating directions, and not skilled at team sports.  These disclaimers quickly excuse my mistakes in advance.  This is a strategy in protecting my ego. 

Now imagine your typical classroom filled with students who are self-handicapping.  This lowered self-image creates a real impediment to learning because students who are convinced of the truth of this will not even try.

So how does a classroom teacher encourage students certain of failure to try?

One important way is to create a classroom environment that is cooperative instead of competitive.   Cooperative learning groups promotes a positive kind of interdependence where individual success is not as important.   This type of structure also gives students of all learning abilities a chance to succeed.   And results show that students who are given a chance to work collaboratively learn faster and feel more positive about school.  It would also seem likely they would self-handicap less often. 

One of the consequences of self-handicapping is it constantly reinforces the negative belief of not being smart enough to be comprehend difficult subjects.   Many students believe that high intelligence is only associated with book smarts and higher graders.  When in fact there are seven measurable kinds of smart. 

Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliners” says high IQ even at the genius level is not a predictor of success.  He illustrates in his book that practical intelligence helps an individual read a situation. It’s procedural and is about knowing how to do something without necessarily being able to explain it.  Practical intelligence helps you handle the challenges of life.  And it is not innate but can be taught.

We’ve grown accustomed to associating smart with success and high academic achievement.  That could be why even as an adult I will avoid having to do complicated mathematic calculations.   Just to test myself and try to undo some of my old scripts I forced myself to take an online math test.  I did the equations over and over until finally I began to understand what had been missing. 

Researchers have discovered that being good at math is not an innate ability.  It’s not so much ability as an attitude.  You can master mathematics if you are willing to try.  Success is a function of persistence and the willingness to work hard to make sense of something.  

My little experiment is too late for rich academic development but it did prove to me that self-handicapping has been an impediment to learning.  I wonder if given different circumstances as a child would I have discovered a talent or even a passion that I don’t have now. 

Teachers have an opportunity to shape the beliefs of their students by giving them the freedom to have a “glorious misconception” (as Mr. Gladwell writes) about something and then the time to work enough to resolve it.   These “ah ha” moments are truly the windows of opportunity because students will tap into the possibilities.