It seems to me that criticism has become something akin to bullying. Parents will march to school in defense of their child not getting chosen or being corrected by a well meaning teacher or student. I think there is a fear of hurting self-esteem.

I believe it is just the opposite; there is no better way to improve than to be criticized constructively. There is no better motivation to improve than to be not picked for a team or chosen last-it hurts but it brings about good change. A false self-esteem is just a truth away from an unhappy child. We learn where our strengths and weaknesses are, we learn about ourselves and adapt to our surroundings.

Criticism strengthens our character, makes us realize who our true friends are and who are better to remain acquaintances. There is a beauty in truth, good or bad, in our lives we need to learn to take in information from multiple sources and decipher what is real and what is false.

A part of our children’s learning process is criticism and hiding it or eliminating it builds only a weak foundation to build their self-esteem upon. There is no better way to improve than to be constructively criticized and there is no better way to build a thicker skin than to be able to ignore useless criticism.