Little Nudges

I heard an interesting Ted Talk this week about the differences in confidence in girls and boys. https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/?showDate=2018-03-02

1.

Girls, they said, have typically been conditioned to wait and do something until they are 100% sure they can do it "right."  They are less apt to answer questions in school than boys--because boys only need to have a hunch to get in the game; girls like to be sure their answer is correct.

To counter this, the speaker said, girls and boys should not be overly praised for everything they do.  Instead, they should be praised for the process of learning something new.  This creates in the child a willingness to try, make mistakes, try again--without being so focused on the opinions of adults about the quality of their efforts.

2.

In another Ted Talk, the speaker talked about how to make changes: keep the change simple.  The example given was this:  If I child is given a bag of sliced apples, she is way more likely to eat apples than if she is handed a whole apple.  Slicing apples is a "nudge" that increases apple consumption by 90%!

I shared this new information with Elena and she said, "I know why.  It's because the apple is open and you can see that it's clean inside."

3.

Freda has often suggested KSYM--San Antonio College's radio station, but I'd never gotten around to switching from NPR.

Yesterday, I got in the car with Kate (Sebastien and Makken's mom) and liked the music on her radio.  She told me it was 90.1--San Antonio College's radio station.  So I came right home and changed the station.  She had, in effect, peeled and sliced the apple for me--made it easy for me to get a taste and want more!


http://ksym.org