Thursday 20 November 2008

The Smug Generation

How long will the Left Wing press stay silent on this story run by the Right Wing press today? - "Fawning parents are creating children who expect success to fall into their lap". The Telegraph has run it on its front page and The Daily Mail on page three.

"Modern parents heap so much praise on their children that they are creating a 'smug generation' with little idea of the real world," roars The Daily Mail picking up on research based on 40 years of results from an annual U.S. survey called Monitoring the Future.

Surely, we should be celebrating the fact that our youngsters are "full of self-confidence" and not crippled by self-doubt. I can clearly remember hearing the adage "children should be seen and not heard" when I was a girl (but not from my parents).

That's not to say that poor learning engagement should be rewarded while anything goes - including the erosion of traditional teaching. When a child learns how to read, she is empowered. But a child taught by a teacher who thinks empowering her learning skills will turn her into a big head will feel the iron entering her soul.

1 comment:

Paul Taberham said...

I think I heard some year ago that there was an old Greek tradition where if someone compliments a child in the presence of the parent, thee parent is supposed to spit on the child to stop them from getting big-headed

I could be wrong about this, and I'm reluctant to post it, because I might offend a Greek person somewhere! But this fear of making people big-headed seems pretty pervasive. I find fear of praise or compliments a little pathetic. I also think that a feeling of a lack of recognition will sooner cause arrogance than excess praise.