("She's pretty good at math, isn't she? Is she better than X?"), and
the ranking of things that are not significantly different and really
oughtn't to be described in terms of comparison.

But why do you say "ought not"? What difference does it make? You've
said it's unnecessary, but you haven't said why it would be bad, or
harmful, or undesirable.

You think it could possibly be *good* for kids to hear "You're prettier than
your sister," "You're smarter than your sister," "You're nicer than your
sister," "You're more musical than your sister," "You're more athletic than
your sister," "You work harder than your sister," "You're more polite than your
sister," yada yada yada?
You *really* don't see how it's better to hear things like "You look very
pretty," "What a nice thing to say," "You sang very well," "You really improved
your time on the mile," "You worked very hard on this," "What nice manners you
have!"?

--Helen