Parent: So this Goldilocks Zone is what I needed all along in math class?
Dr. B: Yeah. You needed to be challenged with a new concept …
Parent: … but with help until I mastered it.
Dr. B: Exactly. We call that support, scaffolding.
Parent: What’s with you and the brick wall metaphors?
Dr. B: You prefer a baseball metaphor?
Parent: Seriously? Go on.
Dr. B: As you master the concept, you need less help.
Parent: Like not needing to hold my kid’s hand when we walk down the sidewalk?
Dr. B: Yeah.
Parent: So, new concept, new scaffold?
Dr. B: You got it.
Parent: And I didn’t have the scaffold in math?
Dr. B: Well, if you weren’t working in the Zone -The Goldilocks Zone – you were set up to fail.
Parent: So, I’m not missing a math gene?
Dr. B: Nope.
Parent: So I don’t really suck at math?
Dr. B: Actually, you do. But you weren’t born that way.
Parent: You are not being very supportive.
Dr. B: Well, I’m trying to help fix your Mindset.
Parent: Something else I suck at?
Dr. B: To believe you are just naturally no good at math is to have a Fixed Mindset.
Parent: And?
Dr. B: And to believe you can learn math, if you work at it, is to have a Growth Mindset.
Parent: Now you’re saying I was lazy?
Dr. B: Jeez!
Parent: I’m just messing with you. I get it. If I’m getting enough help until I master something new and challenging, I’m working in the zone and using a Growth Mindset.
Dr. B: I think you’ve got it.
Parent: Then how come, no matter how hard you practiced, you could never learn to hit a curve ball?
