this article on her most recent post. I'm so lazy I get it by e-mail... which explains why I'm not good about reading any others'.
A brief summary of the article : don't tell your kids they're smart - tell them they're good workers, instead. This actually hit quite close to home, because I was always told how smart I was - and I am reasonably brilliant, to the degree that functioning in society without ripping off people's heads and eating them is difficult. As a result, I think that I gave up too easily, unwilling to actually attempt anything that came with difficulty - geometry, biology, chemistry... and later on, anything that required any effort at all. The giving up turned into pure panic further on, likely helped along by a so-helpful English teacher who insisted that I was stupid - and I believed her.
I'm not saying all this because I feel sorry for myself. It's more like a revelation that comes at an especially good time; I am determined to do well in this term's classes, and this bolsters the effect. If I tell my three-year-old Boy more often that he's to work hard, and that he's smart as a reward, maybe life will be easier for him in the long run - and less stressful for all of us.
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