Education
News Flash: Sun Rises in East
by Clay Staggs
Sorry for the snarky title, but stories like this really get under my skin. Lo and behold, there’s now an academic study that says that praising your children when praise is not deserved is - brace yourselves - counterproductive. Stop and ask yourself how many stories you’ve read from the supposed experts in childrearing and education about the crucial importance of the child’s self-esteem. Some have even gone so far as to advocate that children be allowed to pursue “inventive spelling” of words, urging teachers and parents to “ignore spelling and grammar errors, unless the learners ask to be corrected,” and “respect learners and be sensitive to their feelings as you help them build confidence in writing.” Yes, heaven forbid that anyone be corrected, lest their feelings and self-esteem suffer irreparable injury.
Only, now there’s evidence (as if any were really needed) that it’s all baloney. You see, it turns out that if you praise your child for being smart (even in the face of their failures and mistakes) they come to believe that they are indeed smart, and need not expend all that much effort on learning since they’re so smart already. The study also found that, if, instead, you praise a child for his or her efforts or hard work, then the child believes that effort and hard work yield good results and he or she tries to work harder and put forth more effort. Read the whole story.
If you really need to.
Posted by Clay Staggs at February 21, 2007 03:58 PM
Clay, I don’t know if you were there, but one Sunday I told a story about one of my Psych professors who asked us to self-grade one writing assignment as honestly as possible— and the grade would stand in the book. Afterwards, he had a short commentary about the the histroy of his experiement over 20+ years. He explained that most were A’s, some B’s, and the rarest C. In al his years he never saw a D or an F. His comment was: (a non-believer, now) “Self-esteem is not your problem. Class dismissed.” Well-played.