DA Mayer

Have you noticed how the power of suggestion can affect people? I recently taught a class and the someone told the class that no one does well on one of the test- guess what, no one did well on the test.
In a subject that I used to teach I showed movies that were on the science side of infant behavior. If I told the class that the movie was dry but pick out the important points they would comment that the movies weren't good, but if I got excited and said watch what the newborn/ infant can do I would receive comments how great the movies were.
I actually co-taught with someone else and she told one of the students he would never make it and would fail the tests, of course he failed the test. Go figure.

RatherB Quilting

It's kinda horrible that your "co-teacher" would say something like that to a student. If it makes you feel better, in college I had one professor stand up in front of the class and say that all the people at the back of the class were stupid, didn't deserve to be there and they were going to flunk out. I was at the back of the class. I did rather well in his class actually! :) There is hope that the power of suggestion might sometimes be taken as reverse psycology!

MadQuilter

My MIL was told by the vice principal that DH would end up digging ditches for a living because he was too dumb to do anything else. He was in the room at the time AND for the longest time he believed it about himself. OMG! He has undiagnosed dyslexia.

It took me YEARS to combat that childhood insecurity. Every time he started to get ahead, he would sabotage his own progress. A vicious circle. BUT, he "grew up" and in 2006 he graduated from the University of San Francisco with a B average. Yes, he can dig ditches, but those are for fun to fix the sprinkler system.

It is sad that we are collectively easily influenced.

bj

When I was teaching I heard the story of a teacher who had a class of underachievers. She looked at their records and saw they all had high iq's. She structured her class to that higher standard and the kids all succeeded. At the end of the semester, her principal asked her how she managed it. She shared about their high iq's and was told that the numbers she saw were their locker numbers. Don't know if it's a true story, but it sure says something about the power of faith and encouragement. I hope it was true.

Lisanne

bj, that's hilarious, but wonderful if true!

Yes, Denise, suggestion can be very powerful, and not just in teaching. Advertisers rely on it. There's this whole thing about you're not selling some product, you're selling some promise. So you're not selling Pepsi, you're selling the idea that if you drink Pepsi, you'll be cool, you'll have fun. You're not selling a car, you're selling the woman who (in some guy's fantasies) is posing next to it.

I think a person has to be open to it, even if subconsciously. Students already see the teachers as knowledgeable, so they're open to accepting most of what the teachers say. So teachers have real power to do damage with statements like the "everyone will do badly on this test."

IrishNY

There are lots of studies that show that people work to the expectations. If you convince them they can do great things, they will. And it has little to do with intelligence, innate ability or any other individual trait.

Of course, the reverse is true. If you don't expect much, that's what you get.

burnsk

When in high school our class president was told that he should go apply for a job at the Ford plant because he would never succeed in college, an assembly line job was what he was cut out for. He is now the head of Pediatric Diabetes Unit at a hospital in Florida and is a highly renowned doctor in his field. Is frequently called upon for difficult cases nationwide. SO proud of him.

Lisanne

Very true, but not completely. It makes me think of the auditions for American Idol, where they show people who are just terrible, and these people have been told they can be and do anything they put their minds to. The thing is, they do have to put their minds (or voices or performances) to it to succeed. And they just won't look at themselves objectively so they can improve.

Or people with cancer who try visualization techniques to fight the cancer. They want to be positive, and they get the expectation that the techniques will work for them. These techniques have been successful to an extent, but not with everyone. And when it doesn't work, not only is the person left in despair, she or he also feels guilt at not succeeding at it.

So I guess I'm saying suggestion and setting expectations can be powerful - but not all-powerful.