The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones.

What is the best way to teach? Is it by reinforcing the positive actions by praising the person , albeit ignoring the negative ones? I do not agree. I believe that a good teacher should be able to address the the mistakes and the negative actions and provide feedback in the form of constructive criticism thereby helping the person to improve his knowledge base and develop a better skill set to achieve greater heights.Imagine a child at school. Teachers may praise the child if he or she does great in academics. If the student gets into a fight with his buddy and beats him up for no reason, should that action be ignored? Of course not. There’s no question that the student should be talked to and made aware that such an action is unacceptable. Same is the case at home. Parents are a child’s first teachers and they need to correct a child’s mistakes, otherwise how can I a child know what is right or wrong, what is acceptable or unacceptable in the society? The same principle applies at work place too. For a young employee, the learning process and the whole work experience would be tedious and unmanageable if no one points out his or her mistakes and guides them through the process of avoiding them or managing them effectively so that their consequences are minimized. There may exceptions to rule if a person is a self learner and an astute observer of the world around him and is able to figure out what’s positive and what is not, but their numbers are limited. Most individuals cannot attain their full potential unless they are cognizant of their mistakes and have taken a conscious effort to rectify them. In summary, I believe that the best way to teach someone is by identifying both positive and negative actions, encouraging their positive efforts, but at the same time helping them, to recognize their negative actions by pointing them out to them, offering constructive criticism and meaningful advice to help them avoid the mistakes.