ISSUE Prompt – The best way to teach – whether as an educator, employer or parent – is to praise positive
actions and ignore negative one’s.
While some agree to the statement that the best way to teach is to praise only positive actions and
ignore all the negative one's, I strongly disagree to this because this will not only paralyse the ability to
distinguish between positive and negative actions but it will also make the learner an amateur in
tackling the negative situations.
While some might argue that by teaching only positive actions, learners will indulge only into positive
actions .However this statement is faulty because they would not be able to distinguish between a
positive and negative action as they would have been taught only about the positive actions and
wouldn't know what a negative action is. For example, if an individual is not aware that taking drug
could cause harm to his/her health, then drugs would appeal that individual because of its addictive
nature. So praising the negative actions while teaching is equally important as it is to teach positive
one's. This will make the learner aware about both sides of actions and will brush up their skills to
quickly distinguish between the two.
Don't you think that learners should know what is negative and why is it negative? An equally important
question would be - Don't you think that learners should know that why a particular actions is stated as
negative and why they should avoid involving into a negative action? The main agenda of teaching is to
make the learner intellectually strong enough to broader his ability to not only distinguish between
positive and negative or between good and bad but to make him able to understand the complexities of
an action. A learner should be taught about why a particular action is negative and what will be the
consequences of involving in such a negative actions. For example, a learner should be made aware of
the punishments of crimes like cheating, murder or rape so as to teach him why he should avoid such
actions and what could happen to him by getting involved in such crimes.
Now think about a situation that you have accidentely hit someone with your car. What will you do in
such situation? You'll either ran away or you'll take the victim to hospital and inform the police. Here
you'll have two choices. One is good or a positive choice and other is bad or negative choice. But if you
had not been taught about tackling negative situations, how would you make a wise decision? So, i have
only chosen this example to state that the main agenda of teaching is to make a learner morally strong
and make him/her able to make wise decision. A learner should also be taught about tackling a negative
situation and you can only teach those by making them aware of negative situations only.
So to conclude, I'd say that it is equally important to teach about the negative actions along with the
positive actions to make the individuals aware of both and make them wise enough to tackle the
negative situations and to teach them about why they should stay away from indulging in negative
actions.