Honors Summer Read 2017: Rules of Engagement

"The Submissive Reader" (1928) by Rene Magritte

Welcome to the ECU Honors Program's Enduring Questions website!  If you are enrolled in an Enduring Questions class for the fall semester of 2017 at ECU (EQ1 or EQ3), this website is for you.  Read on!

Responses to questions on this website are designed to generate "virtual conversation." By virtual, we do not mean something that looks like conversation but isn't. Instead, we mean REAL conversation in a virtual environment--this website.  And this fall, incoming first- and second-year Honors students will be engaged in the same discussion. Ten percent of each student's grade in both EQ1 and EQ3 will be based on your responses to the questions raised here.

The sort of conversation we're looking for is academic in character. Thus, your responses should consist of clear, concise statements of your ideas crafted in standard English (not text-speak--some of us are old!). They should be long enough to convey your thoughts, but short enough for other readers to read and respond to fairly quickly. In short, you don't want your responses to be so long that you monopolize (or kill) the conversation by going on, and on, and on.....(we all know how irritating that can be!).

Obviously, responses should not use profanity. They should be civil and respectful. People do not always agree. Responses can be critical; however, all communication is expected to be courteous and professional. Contributor's positions may be questioned; their character should not.

The object here is to reflect on some of the issues raised by the text, to connect the reading to your personal experience, and to help first- and second-year Honors students get to know each other better.

When should I begin posting my responses?
As soon as you have read the opening pages of Mindset.

When is this assignment due?
This writing assignment is designed to be completed before classes begin.  Details about where and how to account for and submit your word count total will be provided in class when the semester starts.

How many questions should I respond to?

We do not expect you to respond to each question, but you should respond to several representing different sections of the book.

How much should I write?

Your responses should add up to a sum total of not less than 750 words.  Don't try to load up all 750 words into one or two comments.  You should also respond to comments left by other readers. And pose questions to other readers. (Check back later to see if anyone has responded to your comments-and respond to their responses.)  All of this writing will count toward your word total.  Students are responsible for keeping track of their word total (you can cut and paste your responses into a Microsoft Word document, which has a word count feature).  This is not just a writing assignment, though; it's a reading assignment, too.  Every student is responsible for reading every word of the assigned text.

Where do I post my responses?
At the bottom of each question post, you will find a "comment" link. If it has a "0" beside it, that means no one has commented yet; as more people comment, the number will go up. When you're ready to weigh in, click on the "comments" button, read any previous comments, and start writing. Please sign your posts. And use your real name--not a nickname--so we can get to know each other).

More questions?
E-mail us at sbenton@ecok.edu!

Engaging Mindset

In this post, you will find links to about several question sets about Carol S. Dweck's Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. These question sets, written by Drs. Benton and Draper, are organized by chapter and are listed in the order in which the issues they address are raised by the text.

There's also a sandbox where you can raise your own questions about the text that are not covered elsewhere (and answer those posed by others).

Once you've started reading the chapters listed below, click on the links, read the corresponding questions and comments other readers may have left (click on the "comment" button beneath each post to see them), and then join the discussion (or initiate it).

There is only one question that every student is required to answer.  That's the last one, referred to here as "The Takeaway." Don't answer it until you've finished reading the book.

Before you Being

Self Portrait

Carol S. Dweck

Chapter One: Mindsets

Questions: 1.1,  1.2

Chapter Two: Inside the Mindsets

Questions: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6

Chapter Three: The Truth about Ability and Accomplishment

Questions: 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4

Chapter Four: The Mindset of a Champion

Questions: 4.1, 4.2

Chapter Five: Mindset and Leadership

Questions: 5.1, 5.2

Chapter Six: Mindsets in Love (or Not)

Questions:  6.1, 6.2

Chapter Seven: Parents, Teachers, and Coaches: Where do Mindsets Come from?

Questions: 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6

Chapter Eight: Changing Mindsets

Questions: 8.1, 8.2, 8.3

The Playlist

The Sandbox

The Takeaway

Self Portrait

"Self Portrait" (1935) by George Chirico

Before beginning the reading, it may be useful to reflect on your answers to the following questions:

a)  What are you good at? What are your strengths?

b)  What are you bad at? What are your weaknesses?

c)  Recount a time that you worked hard at something and did not see much improvement.

d)  Recount a time that you worked hard at something and improved a lot.

Share your answers in the comments area below, if you're up for it.

1.1 Epic fail

"Defeated. Requiem" (1878) by Vasily Veraschagin

In the first paragraph of the text, Dweck reveals that as a young researcher she was "obsessed with understanding how people cope with failure" (4).

Think about the people you have grown up with and gone to school with. Without naming names, how would you characterize their responses to failure?  Have you noticed a tendency to blame others? Or a tendency to blame a lack of innate ability?

Do you know many people who tend to claim that the things they failed at are unimportant to them? What about people who resent the success of others? Or people who talk a lot about their failures or are failures the kind of thing people try to move past as quickly as possible?

Some people associate failure with shame. Do you think shame is ever a constructive emotion?

Most of the posts on this website include a cluster of questions like those above. You do not need to answer them all.  Feel free to answer any particular questions that push you to reflect more deeply on the relevant issue.

1.2 I Believe I Can Fly

"The Fall of Icarus" (1975) by Marc Chagall

According to Dweck, "studies show that people are terrible at estimating their abilities" (11). She goes on to suggest that almost all the inaccuracy can be attributed to people with a fixed mindset.

Think about the people you went to school with and have grown up with (include yourself). Can you describe someone (without naming names) who either seriously underestimated his or her ability or who seriously overestimated it?

Generally speaking, would you say that understimating your ability is worse than overestimating it?

What is the difference between underestimating your ability and being humble? What is the difference between overestimating your ability and being optimistic?

Do you know anyone whose public statements about their ability did not coincide with their actual beliefs?

2.1 I was a Teenage Werewolf

Publicity photo for "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" (1957)

According to Dweck, "the idea that one evaluation can measure you forever is what creates the urgency for those with the fixed mindset. That's why they must succeed perfectly and immediately" (29).

Think about a moment in your past when your performance or your behavior did not provide a representative measurement of the person you would become. Describe that moment--but resist the temptation to explain how you later became a different person.

For example, you might explain that in the fifth grade your elementary school had two, nine-member boys relay teams, which ended up including most of the students in your grade, but you were not fast enough to be on it, but resist the temptation to describe any subsequent successes you enjoyed as an athlete.  OR describe what a slacker you were at school in the 9th grade, but resist the temptation to describe the work ethic you developed at a later date.

How did you feel about yourself at the moment you describe? Did other people learn to expect a certain kind of behavior from you?

2.2 Don't Blame it on the Boogie

Dweck characterizes John McEnroe and Jeffrey Skilling as initially successful people who had a bad habit of blaming other people whenever they experienced failure of any kind.

Can you describe a moment in your past when you blamed a failure or a shortcoming on someone else or bad luck or unfair circumstances (or "the boogie"), but later you came to accept that the fault was mostly yours?

If so, what factors led to the change in your understanding or your acceptance of your responsibility?  Did other people help you realize that your analysis was wrong or is it something that you had to come to entirely on your own?