aesmael

Bronze Dog, whose Bronze Blog I should read more often, has articulated in the comments of one of his Doggerel posts, something which I have been attempting to grasp for a while now.

Certainly getting into one of my peeves. Something I wish they figured out when I was a kid: You don't praise children as being smart, at least not very often: You praise them for working hard.

Anecdotally, I was heavily praised as smart, and as a result, I don't like to be seen working: Smart people are supposed to do things quickly and naturally. At least that's the general idea of what gnaws at me.

Bonus elaboration by Margaret: Yes, absolutely. Praising kids for being smart rather than for working hard just teaches the smart ones to be embarrassed to be seen working hard (since that means they have failed to be smart) and teaches the average and dumb ones that they don't have to even try since hard work doesn't matter and there is no way they can succeed.

That said, it is still better than than the sexist treatment of girls (maybe not so much these days) in which neither "smart" nor "hard work" is worthy of praise, only pretty or nice or popular or good or some euphemism for "biddable."