got smarts?

I read this article and found it very interesting. It basically talks about how telling your children they're "smart" can actually be damaging and it can cause the them to not try difficult things or take risks in fear of failure and not being "smart" anymore. The article instead talks about how we should praise their hard work and that it's their perseverance that brought them to their achievement, not being smart.

I actually completely agree with this for the reason that I have personal experience with it. I was a "smart kid" in early elementary years and I remember so vividly my teacher putting me in the "smart group" in 1st grade. We were given more difficult assignments than the rest of the students because, well, we were smart. I remember one of the assignments that my teacher gave me completely confused me and I had no idea how to do it. Instead of asking anyone or my teacher for help, I kept it to myself and just didn't do it because I didn't want anyone to think that I wasn't smart anymore. So instead of working hard to understand and learn which was what originally had given me my smart title, I forfeited those qualities in fear of losing my smartness.

So future self, don't praise kids for being smart, praise them for working hard and being diligent and fearless :)