Advice: Stop overpraising Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee - latimes.com

Michelle Rhee's advice: Stop overpraising kids - latimes.com:

Michelle Rhee's advice: Stop overpraising kids

February 11, 2012 | 8:00 am

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StudentsFirst chief Michelle Rhee is a lightning-rod figure in educational reform, and I talked to her at length for my ''Patt Morrison Asks'' column. Her goal of a tough-love, top-to-bottom overhaul of public schools doesn't stop in the classroom or with teachers; even how we reward our children is in need of a makeover, she told me.

As an example, her own daughters, she says in aradio commentary, "suck" at soccer, yet they have so many medals and ribbons, "you'd think I was raising the next Mia Hamm."

And that is not, to her mind, a good thing:

The practice of applauding kids for taking