Gmail / 26. The role of self-esteem

The role of self-esteem in the upbringing of children.

Feeling good is the key to success. Some people believe that drug abuse, teen pregnancy failure in school and other social ills can be reduced by making people feel good about themselves. Many American students absorbed the lessons of the newly fashionable self-esteem curriculum. Having failed their final exams, US kids already fell exceedingly good about doing bad.

Some Ame educators are starting to feel bad about doing bad. They do recognize that objective results but not feelings should be the focus of educational reform. Moreover, info about political and ethnic minorities should be included in the teaching curriculum. Women, the handicapped and minorities are required to be portrayed equally. In txts on achievements in arts, science and any other fields the contribution of women and men should be represented in approximately equal numbers.

A fierce attack on Euro-centrism in US schools has been launched. They say many minorities and native americans have all been the victims of an intellectual and edu oppression, which results in the damage to the “psyche” of minority youth. The educators want to prepare all curriculum materials on the basis of multicultural contributions to the development the society. They think that the pathologies afflicting many minorities come from the lack of self-esteem, which in its term comes from the absorbing of negative characterizations of themselves in school books. This argument is wrong on its face. In 40 years negative characterizations have decreased and social pathologies have increased.

I think that in fact the cleaning of the great school curriculum of Euro-centrism is just a willful turning away from real problems in the midst of an edu crisis. The pursuit of good feeling in edu is a dead end. The way to true self-esteem is through real achievement and real learning. Any delusion of edu to satisfy the demands of ideology can be devastating.