LearnStorm Growth Mindset: Khan Academy's humanities content creator on social belonging

Hey, I'm Kim Kutz Elliott and I work on humanities content at Khan Academy.

So yeah, I thought about things that were really difficult for me. One thing, um, that was hard for me was class discussion because I went to this history class, and I swear that every other person in that class had like read every history book ever. I don't know how they did it, but I was convinced that I was an imposter. I did not belong in this class. Everyone else was just completely brilliant.

Um, and you know, they would sit around and discuss these ideas, and they were kind of vicious. You know, say like, "Oh, you know this textbook is wrong; this person has a terrible argument." And I'd be sitting there thinking, "Yeah, but they wrote a textbook. Like, that's a pretty big deal."

Um, so I was just, I think I was just terrified to open my mouth in this class and kind of like reveal to everyone that I didn't belong there. Um, and so I went to a teacher who was a mentor to me, and I said, "I got—everybody's so mean! I'm just—I'm not this mean." And he said to me, "You know, it's okay to be the person who says what can we learn from this, and it's okay to be the person who wants to take something positive away from this class."