"A strong positive
attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug."
-Jimmy Patricia Neal
I strongly disagree that
praising positive actions and ignoring negative ones is a reasonable approach
for the education process. The biggest problem of this method is that someone's
appraisal is usually not the only result of a person's deviant behavior. He may
still have benefits of what he has done, if positive consequences of his deeds
overweigh negative ones. A kind word of praise definitely doesn't hurt the
feelings of people but ignoring negative actions could have a perverse effect
on people's demeanor.
Consider a student who studies
sincerely and performs well in his examinations. This particular student should
necessarily be praised by his teachers and parents, as it will help him to
aggrandize the amount of endeavor, so as to produce even better results in the
future. However, if this student, after achieving success and accolades,
studies laxly, then there is an imperative need for criticism, and he should be
chided for his non-serious attitude towards studies. Chiding will not only
teach him to remain humble and down to earth, but will also make him alert
towards his studies. On the contrary, if such carelessness of the student is
ignored by his mentor, then there are fewer chances of his improvement in the
subsequent years of his study. Thus one can ascertain that, positive
encouragement on the one hand acts as a motivator, while criticism on the other
hand acts as sentinel to one's careless behaviour.
An employee who is late for
work once or twice can be excused. If, however, he is consciously coming late
every day, he needs to be pointed out that his habit is inappropriate and will
not be tolerated any longer.
In addition to the facts
stated above, one final point still needs clarification; positive encouragement
should not go up to the level of cloying, as it may lead a person to take
things for granted. Additionally, negative actions should not be ignored.
Rather they should be criticized, but not to the extent of lambasting, which
can jeopardize the composure and equanimity of a person.
