Nov 12 2021 10 mins
Affirmation is a trap. It makes us dependent, weak and unhappy.
It starts in school. Some comply and are rewarded. They do well in school: but if they have come to expect praise, they may be lost or angry in lie. Others resist and are punished, and lose out as they enter the world of work. Often it is girls who comply, and boys who do not. Both are sabotaged in life.
But instead of teaching independence, instead of making school more like life, we have chosen the opposite: we are making life more like school. But adults who are dependent on others to praise them will have unstable identities and lack independence.