Why is this?Because success in school is too often defined(定义）as high marks in tests. Mistakes are only helpful if we believe that the process of learning is more important than getting to the correct answer.

I came across some interesting research about how children learn and what message they take away about mistakes.Carol Dweck,a professor at Stanford University,has carried out a research in this area.One of her experiments asked 400 fifth-graders in New York city schools to take an easy short test,on which almost all performed well.Half the children were praised for"being really smart”。The other half were praised as"having worked really hard".Then they were asked to take a second test and given two choices-either choose one that was pretty simple and they would do well,or choose one that was more challenging but they might make mistakes.Of those students praised for effort,90 percent chose the harder test.Of those praised for being smart,most chose the easy test.