Thought for Thursday

From "Do Hard Things" by Alex & Brett Harris:

"You're probably familiar with the saying 'ideas have consequences.'  But did you know that expectations have consequences?  It's true.  The power of expectations has been documented in study after study over the last few decades."

The authors wrote about two studies... 
"Both studies were set up the same way.  Teachers were given two classes of randomly divided students.  However, the teachers were told that one class was made up of the best and brightest students at the school and that the other class was made up of the slower to average students.  With that, the teachers began to teach.  And guess what happened?

All of the teachers' interactions were tainted by their expectations.  When the teachers worked with a student in the 'bright' class, they persisted with the student until he or she found the answer.  But when a student in the 'slow' class didn't find the answer right away, the teachers moved on to another student."

"Don't miss this: statistically the classes were exactly the same.  The only difference was in what their teachers expected of them.  Soon, the students began to meet those expectations.  The 'best and brightest' class began to excel, and the 'slower to average' class began to lag behind."

It's worth thinking on.