Teaching an Appreciation for Failure and Encouraging a Growth Mindset Many factors contribute to a child’s inner voice and mindset. Educators, parents and guardians have the ability to shape and reverse how a child reacts, feels and approaches academic and personal challenges. A child’s fixed mindset and fear of failure can hinder his desire to fully immerse himself in learning experiences. When a child has a fixed mindset, he believes that his intelligence is limited; he does not respond well to failure—associating failure with being unintelligent and unsuccessful; and he will seek out activities that are not challenging to validate his intelligence rather than work through an activity that he…