A friend of mine recently sent me this article from the New York Times about the adverse effects of praising children. A number of studies have now shown that praising children for their intelligence will actually cause them to try less in the future because they become afraid of failure. When their success is attributed to their intelligence fear of failure arises because then to fail indicates to them that they are not actually smart. Conversely, children that are praised for their effort and taught that effort is the key to success showed improved growth over their peers.
I've noticed that parents and teachers in our society feel compelled to praise children for everything that they do. Sometimes this is taken to ridiculous ends. I've also seen praise be used insincerely and manipulatively. I like how this article suggests a reasonable alternative to a constant stream of praise with encouragement the praise of effort. Kids do need to be encouraged just as adults do. I imagine that telling kids that they'll never amount to anything would be just as damaging, if not more, then telling them that they are great at everything. Instead of either, "you'll do well if you try hard", is more helpful.
Posted by rose at February 26, 2007 09:10 AM