Good job! (was Dweeb (1964))

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:43 PM -0600 8/4/04, Steve Clason wrote:
>On 8/3/2004 9:06 PM Tom Kysilko wrote:
>
>>
>>Perhaps this had been going on for a while, and as new parents we became
>>suddenly atuned to what people were saying to their children.  But it sure
>>felt as if some child-rearing (excuse me, parenting) guru had proclaimed,
>>"Thou shalt praise thy children with the words, 'Good job!'"  Does anyone
>>know if there's any justification for this feeling?
>
>I recall being informed by my wife that "Good girl!" (I have daughters,
>now in college) praises the person while "Good job!" praises the
>action--the idea is to separate the value of the person from the results
>of the effort, thereby preventing failure from undermining self esteem.
>
And I would imagine the distinction would be even more crucial when
it's a negative assessment.

larry