The pressure is increasingly high in the school system nowadays, which fosters vicious cycles of negative self talk, and declining self worth in kids. Hopefully the information we've gathered can help!

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Intensely negative assumptions about yourself, your situation and your future will lead you to magnify your bad experiences and minimize your good ones. What's important to remember is that there is a vast amount of types of intelligence, and one singular factor like your grades or scores on a test could not possibly define your intelligence.
 - Analytical (academic problem-solving) intelligence is assessed by intelligence tests with well defined, one-answer problems. These tests predict school grades and vocational success reasonably and more modestly. This type of intelligence is what comes to mind for most students when they think about the word intelligence, but in reality it does not define your overall smarts or success.
- Creative intelligence is demonstrated in innovative smarts, such as the ability to adapt to new situations and generate novel ideas. This type of intelligence is not only beneficial in artistic activities, but in many occupations. It is a great help for life in general when it comes to facing sudden challenges or needing to be flexible as well.
- Practical intelligence is required for everyday tasks that may be poorly defined and may have multiple solutions. This type of intelligence is vital to problem solving.

Both scientists Gardner and Sternberg agree that (1) multiple abilities can contribute to life success and (2) different varieties of giftedness bring both spice to life and challenge for education, so don’t focus everything on studying. In addition, not only are there multiple types of intelligence, but high intelligence does not necessarily equal success. Success is a combination of talent and grit: a passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals.

 

Psychologist Carol Dweck believed that intelligence is changeable, not fixed, and stressed the importance of fostering a growth mindset, which is a focus on learning and growing. This means recognizing your mistakes not to emphasize the fact that you made a mistake, but how you can develop to avoid it in the future and improve yourself. Receiving praise for effort and tackling challenges, rather than being smart or accomplished, helps people understand the link between hard work and success. Ability combined with opportunity and motivation equals success, as well as resilience. A study found that those from lowest-income families who had a growth mindset had academic test scores comparable to high-income students who had a fixed mindset (the opposite of a growth mindset).

What we need to do is realize the benefits that Alfred Binet, one of the original creators of the IQ test, foresaw, and enable schools to recognize who might profit from early intervention. However, we need to remain alert to Binet’s fear that intelligence test scores may be misinterpreted as literal measure of a person’s worth and potential. Remember that the competence that general intelligence tests sample is important, and helps enable success in some life paths, but reflects only one aspect of personal competence.
 

Something that can be beneficial is self-affirmation exercises. When challenged to believe their potential, increase self belonging, or focus on intelligence as malleable, students have likewise earned higher grades and schools have had lower dropout rates. There are many ways of being successful. Our differences are variations of human adaptability, and life’s achievements results from motivation as well as fair opportunity.