7 Reward

Reward them handsomely for their efforts through sincere, specific and sensitive Praise.

Give praise to encourage, guide and inspire.

Sensitive praise makes us go down to the child’s level. It makes us look into the child’s eyes. It makes us Listen. It makes us observe.

Specific praise makes us look into a child’s effort and see what efforts she has put in. Instead of just saying, “very good”, we say, “You must have worked with lot of concentration and imagination to have made the purple cloud so big and imposing”.

Sincerity comes from being genuinely interested in the child’s work. Not in evaluating the work, but looking at the work from “what kind of feeling, somebody who has made this, must be feeling”.

It is because of our desire to give the best ‘reward’ that we step down from the right-and-wrong ‘high’ chair of a referee. We come to the ground and inspire the child like a COACH.

"Education is nine tenths encouragement."