This thread came back to me too as I was reading Dweck's
Mindset:
As children, we were given a choice between the talented but erratic hare and the plodding but steady tortoise. The lesson was supposed to be that slow and steady wins the race. But, really, did any of us ever want to be the tortoise?
No, we just wanted to be a less foolish hare...The problem was that these stories made it into an either-or. Either you have ability or you expend effort. And this is part of the fixed mindset.
Also, while parents may not always get it right...
In general, parents are accurate observers of their children�s exceptionality with regard to giftedness. (Jacobs, 1971; McGuffog, Feiring, & Lewis, 1990; Robinson, 1981)
