Thinking About Thinking

I had the privilege of spending this afternoon with the founder of a very promising educational software company.  I was intrigued with the background of the founder as it’s not every day that I run into entrepreneurs with an accomplished and extensive background in child psychology. 

Given his expertise, I couldn’t resist asking the following question: “If you could snap your fingers, and have all the parents in the world do one thing differently for the betterment of all humanity, what would it be?”  After a short pause, his response was: “Catch your kids doing good.” 

I asked what he meant by that phrase.  His response was simply to praise children when they do things that are good.  Apparently parents are quick to give negative feedback to children when they do something wrong, but the more impactful and beneficial approach is to give positive feedback when our children do something good. 

I thought that was a pretty profound answer from an individual who has spent his life’s work understanding and helping children.