Thanks for posting Alexander's article. I have struggled with the either/or posited by the Dweck approach since first hearing of it. Behavior and attitudes just aren't so simply defined. I also flat out don't like the continuation of the tired old nonsense about all these smart people who are always proving their intelligence and that all they care about is their IQ. (That's what I get from several sections of the Mindset website.)
I am in the camp of those who would say acknowledge talent, then set things up to allow the talent to develop through hard work and application.
Has anyone read her site's section on the 2006 Olympics (
http://mindsetonline.com/forum/2006olympics/index.html)? She claims that the US athletes must have all been simply praised for their talents, believed that's all it took to win... so they just "phoned it in" and didn't do well. C'mon. What hogwash. They all got to the OLYMPICS on talent alone and then failed because they didn't try hard enough? PUHLEEZE.
