Don't Lecture Your Girlfriend

Ale spoke to us today about lecturing people. More specifically, about not lecturing peers, as that can often be inappropriate. I said lecturing is usually a bad idea for a variety of reasons, including the fact that, more often than not, the person you are "lecturing" already knows what you are telling them. That morning, for example, we lectured Nico about not wrinkling his homework. But he already knew he should take care of his homework. It would have probably been more effective to simply get him a folder and make sure he puts his work inside it so that it doesn't wrinkle in his bag.

As to whether one must be more careful with peers, I agreed that having no authority can make it harder to be critical, yet the best leaders don't rely on their authority to provide constructive criticism and get people on 'their side". Furthermore, peers recognize that some people are better than others at different things. For example, a schoolmate might defer to his classmate in matters of mathematics while his friend defers to him on matters of soccer.

I asked Ale what got him thinking about this topic and he said his girlfriend had told him the day before that he was lecturing her. Now, girlfriends and boyfriends are a TOTALLY different mater. A very sensitive matter... But one for another day ;-).