Self esteem and placebos

Sometimes, my kids complain about the excessive positive reinforcement they receive at school. They are not impressed with the self-esteem movement. In their opinion, unwarranted praise is deceiving. Perhaps they feel this way because they come from a very supportive family at home, where they do not lack in positive reinforcement. I remember early in my career I would get performance reviews that amounted to, “You are doing a fantastic job.” I would always ask, “How can I improve?” The answer always hmed out to be, “Just keep doing what you are doing.” I always hated that answer. I wanted some negative or constructive, feedback in order to try to improve myself. Is there a need for negative feedback in our culture of positive strokes? I’ve been thinking about the balance of positive and negative feedback, and how to combine them into constructive feedback.