MURRAY: Taking the gifted down

Success and failure are learning tools of life. One without the other simply has no meaning.

This is a wonderful series of articles. It should be required reading for every college and university faculty. I especially agree that unearned praise does nothing to develop self-esteem in children. They are not stupid, and they know whether or not they really have accomplished something, and it encourages them to live a lie, which cannot make one feel good about him/herself. I also agree that we need to work on helping children develop a healthy sense of empathy and humility. Many people think that putting oneself first is the same thing as putting one's best interests first. It's NOT. We need to be teaching our children how to discern what is in their best interest, and not just how to get what they want.

It gets worse when they go into the workplace. Where I work we are required to continue the praise, give overly inflated performance ratings and give promotions to people who don't have any real experience at all. Any time I question this status quo, i.e. there are some tasks they don't have the experience to do, I get a dirty look from management and am told "they are very talented and can do that job". Makes me want to puke.