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I disagree with the basic assumption of the entity theory that our intelligence is fixed (or largely unalterable). It is contrary to how our brain develops. The extreme flexibility of babies' brain is an evidence that our intelligence is very much malleable. However, I am not totally against praising kids in the Entity way: oh, you are such a smart kid! I think it can serve to boost students' self-esteem by giving them a positive prophecy to fulfill. In my Chinese elementary school, teachers and parents praised kids by referring to their nature all the time. It worked for me: I was motivated to be the smart kid because I was designated as the smart kid. I acknowledge that this kind of praise could be damaging in cases where the kid just cannot live up the expectation that he and others set for himself. But their option does not have to be feeling inadequate. An Incremental type of praise could complement very well here. Saying something like, "you are a smart kid, but you didn't put enough effort into the work" or "this is a challenging question, you are a smart kid you'll eventually get it" can both affirm the students' "natural intelligence" but encourage them to make more effort. This affirmation is based on the assumption that intelligence is very much subject to modification and especially improvement.