I felt being called "smart" was a disservice to me as well. I think it depends on the attitude of the child though. For me, when I heard it, it felt like a lic

I felt being called "smart" was a disservice to me as well. I think it depends on the attitude of the child though. For me, when I heard it, it felt like a license to be lazy. Don't need to work hard, teacher already thinks I'm smart. I wasn't bothered by poor grades because I believed I was smart (that's my natural inclination anyway). On the other hand, I think if people had told me they were worried about me failing, or that I was nth in the class, that would've been a powerful motivator for me and I'm confident I would've worked harder at school. The complicated thing is that different strategies will do different things for different kids. Some kids might lack self confidence and need encouragement, while others (like me) may have too much self confidence and need push back or a wake up call. The problem is delivering encouragement to the over confident and a challenge to the under confident.