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The story of the tortoise and the hare, in trying to put forward the power of effort, gave effort a bad name. One more thing about praise. When we say to children, “Wow, you did that so quickly!” or “Look, you didn’t make any mistake!” what message are we sending? We are telling them that what we prize are speed and perfection. Speed and perfection are enemy of difficult learning: “If you think I’m smart when I’m fast and perfect, I’d better not take on anything challenging.” So what should we say when children complete a task – say, math problems – quickly and perfectly? Should we deny them the praise they have earned? Yes, When this happens, I say, “Whoops. I guess that was too easy.  I apologize  for wasting your time. Let’s do something you can really learn from!”

Excerpted from‘Mindset’ by Carol S. Dweck