Miss Abigail’s thought for the week: Taking Criticism (Gracefully!)
‘Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger.’ (Franklin Jones)
We are trying to teach children to develop a growth mindset through encouraging the following behaviours:
- Embrace Challenge – do hard stuff!
- Persevere in the face of setbacks – never give up!
- Effort is the path to mastery – even experts were beginners once!
- Learn from your mistakes and from criticism – we can always do better!
- Be inspired by and learn from the success of others – what are they doing that you could be doing?
These things are a challenge for all of us, I believe, and lots of us don’t feel great about being criticised.
Some criticism is destructive and can rarely lead to anything good. It makes us feel bad and lots of us don’t react positively (externally or internally), but we can still learn from it…eventually.
Other criticism is constructive, or can be interpreted in that way. It is so important to keep our minds open to doing things better and – though this can still rankle and smart – we need to remember to listen and reflect honestly.
Reflect for a moment: are you good at GIVING criticism? The kind of criticism that people can learn from? Are you good at TAKING criticism? Do you manage to learn from it?
This article gives some useful tips for teaching kids to take criticism:
And, in the spirit of ‘practising what I am preaching’, please give me some honest feedback about what we currently do at school to facilitate and support parent learning about what we do:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vaIE3xF7NergRF6PdJPwAAiZLeFwJ5sBm_QEwxgo0wM/edit
I shall endeavour to take it gracefully…!
