1089 Children and Self-Esteem

There was a USAToday Forum article by Christina Hoff Sommers today, titled "Children can handle failure." She and two other authors have a new book titled, "One Nation Under Therapy; How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance."

She is interviewed at American Enterprise Online:

"Our schools of education promote the idea that high self-esteem is essential to academic achievement. But the concept is too poorly understood to be an appropriate classroom objective. High-school dropouts, burglars, car thieves, shoplifters, even murderers, are just as likely to have high self-esteem as the winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor or Rhodes Scholars.

In May 2003, four prominent academic psychologists published the first comprehensive review of the supposed benefits of self-esteem. They concluded that there was no significant connection between feelings of self worth and achievement, success in personal relationships, or healthy lifestyles.

The self-esteem movement has turned many classrooms into therapy centers rather than places of learning. Learning history, for instance, especially American history, has been radically transformed by the requirement that schools provide students with textbooks that enhance their self image. California subjects prospective textbooks to a social content review with the goal of determining whether the books "promote individual development and self-esteem." California is the largest textbook market in the country, so publishers selling their books in other states still tailor them to California's specifications. What happens is that students are sedated by what one critic called "textbook happy talk," and shortchanged academically."

The self-esteem mantra was going strong even when my children were little--even the Christian authors like Dobson got on the band wagon. So today's parents have not only their own upbringing to deal with, but apparently it is getting piled deeper and higher by the experts.