"I'm Dumb!"

Earlier in the year a junior high school boy enrolled in maths, he had been performing poorly in school assessment tasks. In the first few weeks when he make a error he would cry out ....”Oh! I’m so dumb!!”.  

I would immediately pounce on the statement....”Don’t say that! you ARE not!” 

Over the next months  in the well structured learning environment of tutoring his periodic outcries became less frequent... then ended as better understanding led to excellent results at school 

In June he told me quietly, as he ate his way through some difficult solid geometry problems...

"Maths has become my favourite subject.”  “Why?” I replied.  “Oh!  It’s so easy!”  

...I smiled within and thought back to his early days. 

What this means is a major shift in his view of himself, a view which will remain.