> You don't need to be smart to be a scientist; you need to be stubborn.
Are there any good ways to teach stubbornness to very-non-stubborn kids in a student-teacher relationship?
Too often stubbornness is attributed to some quirk in the child's history/family life that leads them down a self-reinforcing path of self-motivated stubbornness. That's not useful for the vast majority of kids who are surrounded by constant, quick distractions and have parents who lack the knowledge/motivation to instill stubbornness into them.
Being surrounded by constant, quick distractions is passively, accidentally, incidentally working to change kids' nature with or without you. You can choose to be a teacher and actively participate in the process or you can choose be a bystander and let other influences have their way unchallenged.
There are no universal rules when it comes to people. But, what I've observed and what I've had reported to me by those who have studied the issue has pretty consistently shown people who pursue their goals more stubbornly achieving those goals more reliably. And conversely, people who are more easily distracted/dissuaded struggling more and having a more difficult time.
If I cared about a kid that seemed easily distracted/dissuaded, I would do what I could to set that kid up to achieve his/her goals more reliably with less struggle and difficulty. (please don't take this into a discussion the value of achievement vs struggle and difficulty)
Even though I disagree with the premise that world doesn't need any more STEM, that doesn't relate to my question. I'm still interested in how to effectively teach stubbornness regardless.
A lot of stubbornness seems to blossom when a kid (or adult) realizes that there's something to understand beyond the next assignment. If you're working for the external rewards of 10 points/10 dollars/a marshmallow, once you've got it, you're done. If you are working to understand something cool, you have a lot more work to do -- and then you find something else cool, and then something else, and suddenly you're a stubborn researcher!
Many students I've met in high school or college don't even realize that there are cool things to understand in math. They think math is just a collection of rules. Once the rules are mastered/test is over, done. What's there to understand? And hence why be stubborn? What is there to be stubborn about?
A healthy disregard for authority is also important in stubbornness, and hard to teach in school (as it's against the self-interest of the harried teacher who needs a "well-controlled" classroom).
Are there any good ways to teach stubbornness to very-non-stubborn kids in a student-teacher relationship?
Too often stubbornness is attributed to some quirk in the child's history/family life that leads them down a self-reinforcing path of self-motivated stubbornness. That's not useful for the vast majority of kids who are surrounded by constant, quick distractions and have parents who lack the knowledge/motivation to instill stubbornness into them.