Compliments and Criticisms

“The best way to teach – whether as an educator, employer, or parent – is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones”

I disagree strongly with the opinion that the best way to teach – whether as an educator, employer, or parent – is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones for the following reasons. First of all, a student, an employee or a child wouldn’t make any progress in his studies, work or life. Secondly, a person who receives that kind of teaching method won’t trust the people who teach him. Finally, a person who always receives praise for his positive reactions and never hears complaints about his negative ones will be self-centered and selfish.

It is true that an educator, parent or employer has to praise his students, children or employees for their positive attitudes to boost their confidence for doing a great job. However, as a student, an employee or a child, one also needs responses for what he is doing wrong; otherwise, he wouldn’t make any progress in his studies, work or life. For example, when I was 10 years old, I had a Mandarin tutor who was so nice that she never criticized or pointed out my mistakes. Instead, she praised me a lot as a smart and hard-working student. After taking Mandarin lessons for 3 years, I changed to another tutor who lived closer to my home. From my new tutor, I learnt a lot because she always pointed out all of my mistakes. Because of her, I made greater progress in my Mandarin skills because her criticisms made me study harder to achieve the maximum of my ability. Therefore, pointing out someone’s mistakes is an important factor in teaching others.

Secondly, a person who receives this kind of teaching method won’t trust the people who teach him. A person who always receives praise from educators, parents or educators feels that they are not sincere in their praise. For instance, a couple years ago, I attended a writing class. Every single essay that I submitted to my teacher always received praise such as “What a great or wonderful essay!” although in my opinion, my essay was not good enough to deserve praise. After couple times receiving praise that I thought I didn’t deserve, I lost my trust in my teacher. As a result, I didn’t know exactly if I did a great job on my essay or not.

Finally, a person who always receives praise for his positive reactions and never hears complaints about his negative ones will be self-centered and selfish. The reason is that he is confident about himself that he is always correct. As a result, he is being selfish and assumes that he is the best among others because he never receives any complaints but always praise. As an illustration, I read a novel about a man who was raised in a family that never points out his mistakes. Everything he does is correct for his parents; therefore, he receives a lot of praise from his family. When he starts working in a company, he always does something that he thinks is correct and ignores others’ opinions. Furthermore, he thinks he is the best employee in his workplace.  As a matter of fact, sometimes his co-workers don’t really agree with his decisions because of the speculations that he makes. Therefore, being self-centered and selfish could be another result if a person always receives praise from others.

It is clear that slowing progress, losing trust and being self-centered or selfish would be the results if a person always receives praise for their positive actions. In my opinion, a balance of praise and criticism is important for someone in order to be better on his performance. Receiving praise boosts one’s confidence, and receiving criticism corrects one’s mistakes and makes it easier to achieve a better performance.