Response: Entity Theory
The attitudes and the roles that our parents play can significantly affect our performance in certain fields; the parents often feel that it is their right to determine which subjects their children will be best at and which ones they should just leave. I feel what your friend is experiencing is conditioning by the mother, she has managed to encourage her at mathematics and programming while feeling that the other subjects are not the best for her child. I do not believe that one is innately weak in certain subjects, which is not true because there are stories from my friends who are now fluent in English, yet it was never their first language.
Second Student
I agree that comforting students can happen unconsciously, I can relate to your experience, especially how we tend to comfort the students or the people whom we think are not best in certain areas, we feel that they should not be made uncomfortable. When one is not good at something, instead of pushing them to the limits to achieve what might not be their previous achievement, we want them to contend with what they already know. It happens very often, for instance in a class I attended, those who were not good at spoken English were being spared from answering questions in class because they are not good at English and might be intimidated.
Third Student
It is encouraging that you maintain high standards for your students and that you believe that they all have the potential to achieve in life. It is never that easy for other teachers to push their students to their uppermost limits; some will feel that the standards will discourage the students instead of encouraging them to achieve more. I think other teachers should be able to do the same, set standards for their students and in as much as they will not all achieve, they will have been pushed out of their comfort zones which are a good thing.
