Sunday 1 June 2008

WISDOM OF THE WORLD - WEEK 19


PERCEPTIONS

A famous American psychologist oversaw a remarkable experiment. He gave all the students in a school an IQ test just before the end of the school year. After the test he choose ten students and he told their teachers, “From their tests, we have discovered that these children are mentally gifted and are bound to be top of their class next year. Please don’t tell the class as it might be harmful to them.” The teachers promised not to say anything. In fact none of the ten was mentally gifted, they had been chosen randomly.

A year later the psychologists returned to the school and tested the children again. All of the “mentally gifted” students had increased their IQ by at least ten points, with some of them rising by thirty six points. When the teachers were asked to describe these children they used words such as ‘intelligent’, ‘lively’, ‘interested’, and ‘dynamic’. It was the how the teachers saw these children and how they interacted with them that developed their potential.

Our perceptions create our reality.

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