Early start – Comprehensive and continuous training – Good teachers
IvyPrep educational philosophy: genius/talent is not innate, but practicable – Practice makes Perfect.
At IvyPrep, we believe, “Genius is made up of 1% quality and 99% effort.” Each individual needs about 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in a particular field, and this practice must be done on purpose instead of the daily repetition of an exercise. 10,000 hours should be used effectively according to the three basic principles of focusing on handling difficult parts, breaking down stages, and practicing deeply.
The principle of focusing on handling difficult parts is emphasized through taking the time to conquer difficulties instead of drilling easy tasks. Examples of such a practice can be seen in playing music or solving math problems. Making such an effort helps the brain form myelin and improve its previously known pathways.
The principle of “breaking down a task into stages” is the capacity that many people need to develop in the long run. Instead of doing something big and difficult, most geniuses have a way of breaking down the task and organizing the small parts in a logical order. A difficult task is now broken down in a logical order with specific requirements to be solved. Here is an analogy to explain this concept: if you cannot break the whole bunch of chopsticks with your hands at the same time, you can separate this bunch and break each chopstick with ease to achieve the same result. This approach also facilitates the task-doer with specific criteria for a large task to be completed faster without compromising the overall quality. This is a unique ability of productive individuals.
The last rule to pay attention to, is the importance of comprehensive and continuous practice. In music, the best pianists practice by playing the piece so slowly that passers-by do not recognize the work. Tai chi is considered the pinnacle of Chinese martial arts in which movements are performed so slowly that viewers do not even recognize those as martial arts moves. The same principle also applies to learning a language. Instead of reading an entire book, taking time to analyze each sentence of a page is a task that requires deep thinking and thus results in more thorough comprehension. Through deep and slow practice, an individual reaches a new level of thinking in which he needs to pay attention to every detail of the job. This is also when the brain is in the most elaborate state of exercise.
Understanding the importance and principles of doing 10,000 hours of practice may be helpful information, but answering the question “How do you carry out these 10,000 hours of practice persistently?” is even more important for parents who want to invest in their children.
Strength and perseverance determine success.
According to Professor Angela Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania, USA, “The outstanding factor in predicting a person’s success is not social intelligence, not beauty, health or IQ. It’s about perseverance.” In other words, perseverance is one of the indicators of a person’s success in the future. Perseverance is understood as “passion and determination” for very long-term goals. Because the journey to success is a marathon, not a sprint, it is only at the end that we know who the winner is. So how is perseverance built?
It is very difficult to quantify the formula that makes an individual’s motivation which, in general, comes from two things: the framework of cognitive development and passion.
The framework of perception is an individual’s view of their surroundings. There are two common types of cognitive frameworks: fixed cognitive frameworks and developing cognitive frameworks. The distribution ratio between the fixed cognitive framework and the developing cognitive framework has many differences. The majority of humanity falls into a fixed cognitive framework with the notion that competence is a limiting factor for each individual. This factor is determined by genetics, the impact of the environment and therefore they are predestined to do a certain thing in life instead of choosing the path according to their desires which are considered secondary.
With such a view, people with fixed cognitive frameworks agree with routine tasks, are less likely to change and tend to settle down. The use of time by these individuals causes the myelin in their brain not to develop. In contrast, the perseverance of successful people comes from the cognitive framework that develops when they do not believe in fates, and do not want to frame life in available patterns. Because they always believe they can change their fate, they take time to practice and improve their own skills. Together with the proper 10,000-hour training process, myelin has the condition formed to strengthen personal skills.
Passion is extremely difficult to quantify in an individual. Although there is no formula for fostering passion, we can find the source of passion through at least two factors: an inspirational person or an early success to strengthen our confidence.
Along with this educational philosophy, IvyPrep believes that every student, not limited by quality and competence, can be trained to become successful.