mhoyeOne of the things I’ve learned about the consequences of bullying is that when people tell you things like “I’m pretty bad at math” or “computers aren’t for me” or “I don’t really get art or fashion” and you talk to them for a bit what you often find - not always, but often - is what that really means is “somebody treated me like shit for trying to like this when I was 9.”
Lisa the Rue@mhoye Having a 9-year-old right now, I can confirm this, but also that a 9-year-old's social antennae are so over-sensitive, as they learn to tune them, that some of the discouragement and aversion are purely invented, imagined, and sadly self-inflicted. It takes good parents, teachers and others to overcome the common 9-year-old starting point of "I've never tried X / I'm not good at X / people will judge me if I do X"
Mel@lisarue around that age my youngest’s teacher did a thing where she’d add “yet”. They even did an assignment along the lines of “I’m not good at X yet, but I’m learning”. And they talked about ways they could learn/get better at that thing. I loved it and found it so encouraging because it acknowledged that they weren’t good at it, but that they could be.