While I was growing up, I often heard my teachers say, “Oh, Bob is gifted in math.” While watching the Olympics, my parents would say, “These gymnasts are born with such ability.” Statements like these made me believe people were born with certain talents (天赋) and if they didn’t have a particular one at birth, then they never would. Therefore, I hardly applied myself to math. Nobody told me that if you keep trying and trying, one day a difficult task will seem easy.

Actually, I learned this from my young daughter, Samaya. One day, I was finishing some paperwork and I said, “Oh no, how could I have made that mistake!” Samaya immediately said, “Mum, don’t worry. Mistakes make your brain grow bigger.”

In fact, we all need to be reminded that mistakes or failures are just fine and that they are a huge part of growth and success. However, the common and popular belief is the opposite. We must correct this with our children. We must encourage them to make mistakes because that means they are trying out new ideas.

Billionaire Sara Blakely, founder of the shapewear business Spanx, has seen many failures. She made a living by selling fax machines for seven years. Knocking on many doors and making a lot of mistakes was a journey she considers educational. Sara Blakely owes her risk-taking skills to the weekend talk she had with her father.

As a child, her father would ask her the same question every weekend. “What did you fail in this week, Sara?” He did not care how high her scores were. He wanted to know what she had tried but failed in. When she told him about her failures and mistakes, he would give her a high five. In this way, he programmed her mindset (思维) to believe that mistakes and failures are fine.

In Wiltshire, England, volunteers are being searched for to visit a nature protection area to count the butterflies living there and in nearby fields. The project is started by an environmental protection organization, which has been devoted to improving the living environment for wild animals. Recently, the organization has called on volunteers to help it observe environmental changes based on the record of butterflies and protect the environment.

In the area, the local people have planted many special flowers with the help of the organization. They want to see whether these flowers will interest the rare, and beautiful butterflies. The project officer Sarah Marshall says, “It will be a suitable living place for butterflies. They are great ‘indicator species’ (指向性物种) as they are easily affected by climate changes. So they make a brilliant early-warning system for the environment.”

She also points out that volunteers are needed to record the number or species of butterflies, and based on the change happening to the butterflies, the hidden environmental problems in the area can be found out in time.

The organization is searching for volunteers to help monitor (监测) butterflies from April through to September. They will walk the same route and record the different butterflies they meet along the way. Each visit should take no more than two hours, and each volunteer is expected to visit once a month count the wildlife. “Staff will provide backup (后备人员), so if the weather is poor on the day you are visit (butterflies don’t like to fly in the rain, wind or if it’s too cloudy), we can have someone else do your job,” Sarah points out.

No previous experience is necessary as training and support will be provided, but a strong interest is important. If you are interested, please contact Sarah on (01380) 725670, ext 278, or email sarahm@wiltshirewildlife.org.

Getting rid of dirt, in the opinion of most people, is a good thing. However, there is nothing fixed about attitudes to dirt.

In the early 16t century, people thought that dirt on the skin was a means to block out disease, as medical opinion showed that washing off dirt with hot water could open up the skin and let ills in. A particular danger was thought to lie in public baths. By 1538, the French king had closed the bath houses in his kingdom. So did the king of England in 1546. Thus began a long time when the rich and the poor in Europe lived with dirt in a friendly way. Henry IV, King of France, was famously dirty. Upon learning that a nobleman (贵族) had taken a bath, the king ordered that, to avoid the attack of disease the nobleman should not go out.

Though the belief in the benefits of dirt was long-lived, dirt has no longer been regarded as a nice neighbor ever since the 18th century. Scientifically speaking, cleaning away dirt is good to health. Clean water supply and hand washing are practical means of preventing disease. Yet, it seems that standards of cleanliness have moved beyond science since World War II. Advertisements repeatedly sell the idea: clothes need to be whiter than white, cloths ever softer, surfaces to shine. Has the hate for dirt, however, gone too far?

Attitudes to dirt still differ hugely nowadays. Many first-time parents nervously try to warn their children off touching dirt, which might be responsible for the spread of disease. On the contrary, Mary Ruebush, an American immunologist (免疫学家), encourages children to play in the dirt to build up a strong immune system. And the latter position is gaining some ground.