Mc Jethro Pov B.

Talamayan
BSA III

Children Learn What They Live

Dorothy Law Nolte

If children live with praise;

They learn to appreciate

This particular line from the poem drew my attention. Its certainly a line which I
think is not exactly true while not exactly false, as others. There is, in fact, a correlation
between the amounts of praise a children receives to his/her ability to appreciate; but
there is a thin line between being able to appreciate things and being too judgmental. A
child who experiences high quantity of praises may grow to be too prideful of his/her
accomplishments, putting too much emphasis on the actions that warrants praises and
not the reasons why those actions should be done. This child may see that doing this
particular thing may lead to rewards and praise, and do it for the sake of praise and not
for the good itself. In short, it will make the child a hypocrite. Worst case scenario is when
the child, lived with praises due to his/her actions that are considered right, will tend to
judge others using the mindset that only those that he considers right should be deserving
of praise.

In the end it is not the praise that teaches us to appreciate. It is knowing why such
a thing should be done that does. But wouldnt that mean that praise itself is not only
insignificant but also damaging? Definitely no! Yes praise instills into the child a false sense
of pride and appreciation, but that is only when such praise is not followed by telling the
child the reason for their praise. Children are so impressionable that just knowing the act
is right is not enough, we have to tell them the reason because next time s/he will be able
to do what is the right thing to do based on proper morality and ethics.