I know some of you have started reading our book Nurture Shock and I wanted to share a little bit of it with you. I hope you all can read it. It is great! If you haven’t found a copy of it yet you can order it here or I know the library has several copies of it.

In the first chapter “The Inverse Power of Praise” we read:

“The presumption is that if a child believes he’s smart (having been told so, repeatedly), he won’t be intimidated by new academic challenges. The constant praise is meant to be an angel on the shoulder, ensuring that children do not sell their talents short.

“But a growing body of research…strongly suggests it might be the other way around. Giving kids the label of “smart” does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it.”

A bold statement! And one that I did not agree with originally. Bronson goes on to share the findings of a woman named Dr. Carol Dweck from her studies on praise. He talks about different kinds of praise. When praised for innate ability or talent, children react one way and when praised for effort, children react another. I find these studies fascinating. Another article about Dr. Dweck’s work can be found here.

Have any of you read this?

What are your thoughts?