My name is Ingrid Beekhuizen and I teach at Kingsmead College, a girls’ school in Johannesburg, South Africa. We have been on the journey of learning about and developing the Habits of Mind since early 2011. We first heard about the Habits when James Anderson presented at a conference in Cape Town. He spoke about the notion of being able to teach children to behave intelligently and that the Habits were the ‘how to’ aspect of striving for success in life. We recognised the Habits as the missing component for working towards excellence in education, as well as for their potential in empowering every child.