Talk 75: To Praise or Not to Praise Children: What Should Parents Do?

Education and psychology are continually offering new theories to parents and teachers on child development. One such theory, developed in the 1970’s, involves praising children to improve their self-esteem, confidence, motivation and performance in school. Followers of this “self-esteem movement” believe it produces children who will go on to form a better, more positive and productive society. Opponents of the movement, however, hold that praising children leads to psychological problems. Before this movement, praising children was not common in Western society, and there are cultures in which praising children is considered harmful. Who then is correct?

In this talk Father Kosmas uses the lives and teachings of various saints and elders to examine whether the self-esteem movement is compatible with Orthodoxy and whether it has had a pos ...