The Creative Mind

"Why instilling admiration for hard work rather than raw talent is the key to fostering a well-adjusted mind."

Stephen Grosz writes: "Nowadays, we lavish praise on our children. Praise, self-confidence and academic performance, it is commonly believed, rise and fall together. But current research suggests otherwise — over the past decade, a number of studies on self-esteem have come to the conclusion that praising a child as ‘clever’ may not help her at school.

"In fact, it might cause her to under-perform. Often a child will react to praise by quitting — why make a new drawing if you have already made ‘the best’? Or a child may simply repeat the same work — why draw something new, or in a new way, if the old way always gets applause?"

His book: The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz. http://shrd.by/emTSPf