Hope for ADD job seekers?

[Wgreen]

For the ADD job seeker, there’s nothing more deflating than running across this line in a job description: “Outstanding organizational skills and ability to manage multiple projects/program elements simultaneously.” Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But wait! Two researchers—one in the UK and one in the US—have just published a new book, “Put Your Mindset to Work.” (www.3Gmindset.com). These guys argue that what employers want —or should want—is not somebody with a specific skillset, or even outstanding organizational ability, but a winning “mindset.” And their three winning mindset qualities are:

1) “Global” The vantage point of your 3G Mindset. It is about openness to new experiences and new ideas, as well as the ability to make new connections and to create new combinations.

2) “Good” The bedrock of your 3G Mindset. It is about seeing and approaching the world in a way that truly benefits those around you.

And 3) “Grit” The fuel cell of your 3G Mindset. It spurs you on when others give up and gives you the grip you need to forge ahead.

Now I don’t know how everybody in this crowd would score on 2 and 3, but most of us probably would blow the roof off number 1. Who knows, you may be more valuable to a company than you think. If you want to take their test (BTW: I hate “quantitative” assessments in lieu of what should be “qualitative” ones, but that’s grist for a different post on a different site) go to http://www.3GMindset.com . It’s free.

According to the book,

A score of just above 300 is low.

500-700 is below average.

900 is average.

1100-1300 is above average.

Around 1500 and above is high

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[Anonymous]

Hi Wgreen,

Just stopped by here because I was kicked off another website due to the late hour. My school board’s regular website is still available but the particular area used just for report cards is ‘down’ from 12:00 AM Sunday until 6:00 AM for regular maintenance (whatever that would be). I think that particular area is linked in with another system since our repcards are linked in with another site that is directly linked to the education ministry.

Anyway, those 3 points that you’ve listed jumped right out at me. Our provincial govt changed our the format of our repcards this past fall and guess what a major component of them is? What is referred to as Learning Skills and Work habits. What do some of them look like? You betcha!

Your comment:

1) “Global” The vantage point of your 3G Mindset. It is about openness to new experiences and new ideas, as well as the ability to make new connections and to create new combinations.

Under our ‘Initiative’ section on the repcard:

– Looks for and acts on new ideas and opportunities for learning.

– Demonstrates the capacity for innovation and willingness to take risks. (Now isn’t that one just made for ADDers??)

2) “Good” The bedrock of your 3G Mindset. It is about seeing and approaching the world in a way that truly benefits those around you.

Under our ‘Collaboration’ section on the repcard:

– Responds positively to the ideas, opinions, values, and traditions of others.

– Works with others to resolve conflicts and build consensus to achieve group goals.

– Shares information, resources, and expertise, and promotes critical thinking to solve problems and make decisions.

And 3) “Grit” The fuel cell of your 3G Mindset. It spurs you on when others give up and gives you the grip you need to forge ahead.

Under our ‘Self-Regulation’ section on the repcard:

– Sets own goals and monitors progress towards achieving them.

– Assesses and reflects critically on own strengths, needs, and interests.

– Identifies learning opportunities, choices, and strategies to meet personal needs and achieve goals.

– Perseveres and makes and effort when responding to challenges.

Of course, there were 3 other whole sections of Learning Skills that I didn’t even mention along with a whole bunch of other things listed under the above 3 heading. We’re now being told that the businesses now want people who are independent thinkers who don’t want to be led by the hand. As far as I’m concerned, I thought that was what everybody wanted!

Anyway, the kids are great with some of these things but they are really challenged in others. More and more these days, the kids are struggling because they are never made to ‘think or do’ at home. It’s so much easier and faster for us to do it for them so that’s exactly what the parents do. They pack their kid’s backpacks, do their homework and then even pack that in their bags. When they send notes in to school, they call and leave a message to make sure their kid has handed it in because Junior won’t remember on their own.

This new section comprises the whole first page of the repcard and it’s not going over particularly well in my neighborhood. The next 2 pages of the report are the regular subject areas. Our parents are really confused why their kids can’t get an ‘A’ because “my child knows all their addition/subtraction/multi./division facts, learned their spelling words, can name all the continents….

Yes, but can they use critical thinking skills and apply all those ‘facts’ to solve a variety of different problematic scenarios? I’ve got a group of parents who themselves don’t understand that kind of thinking. So what do they do? They send their kids for hours and hours of tutoring.

Those parents are really trying hard to get a grasp of what is needed but they themselves are stuck in a formulatic way of thinking. I’ve spent hours (and hours) working with some of them to help them understand this stuff better. Their poor kids get this deer in the headlights look when the new questions and problems are posed to them. 😯 Their tutors don’t cover this stuff. Just facts, facts, and more facts.

Almost every parent of my students were educated outside of Canada and their home country stressed rote learning. Believe me, I’m a firm believer in some rote learning because you need some of those basic facts to be able to do all this other higher level thinking.

It sure isn’t fun being a kid anymore. I look back at what I had to learn when I was a kid and think, “Sheesh, I’m glad I’m all grown up now!”

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[Wgreen]

ZsaZsa–That’s all interesting stuff. Synchronicity.

I’ve never taught in a classroom, but I have kids. So I think about these things. How do we teach our youngsters to think, to innovate, to connect dots? German educator Kurt Hahn, best known in the US and Canada as the founder of Outward Bound, once admonished educators not to “indoctrinate” their pupils. “Indoctrination is the work of the devil,” he said. I suspect his concern was that students need to experience and observe the world around them and be encouraged to draw their OWN conclusions. Of course, as you say, that doesn’t mean we need to jettison the memorization essential to mastering history, physics, world literature, math and the like. True originality emerges from the way we respond to what has come before us. Intellectually, we all stand on the shoulders of others. But we must all be critics—of the past and present. To accomplish that, it seems to me we need to do (at least) two things: we somehow must find a way to teach our children to THINK MORE CRITICALLY. Then we need to instill in them the courage to take ownership of their own ideas, ideas that others may find risible, while remaining open to other possibilities.

So, out of curiosity, how does an ADD teacher, for whom creative thinking would come naturally, teach kids who are not ADD—and thus (generally) not as naturally disposed to connect dots in interesting ways— to think the way she does?

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