Coddling for Self-Esteem

In the section on education (I wish it were longer!), the authors comment that "self-esteem is important, but it is not an entitlement. It has to be earned." And later, "American young people have got to understand from an early age that the world pays off on results, not on effort." I wonder how we can begin to change this culture in our American society--perhaps the consistency must begin in our homes. Perhaps it needs to come from top-down education as was discussed in our recent Race to the Top book club. After reading those books, we took a hard look at what our students do to achieve; in some cases, they cheat, manipulate, and lie in order to "achieve" a grade that will get them into a better college. Obviously this is not what we want for our students, but it seems that the majority of our students expect to receive high marks for mediocre work. As Laura Hughes alluded to in her last post, if we challenge students by expecting more and by making them write a second draft (oh no!), then we are shattering their self-esteem by implying that their first effort wasn't good enough. I hope our students and parents are watching the Olympics. Not every athlete has achieved a dream. In fact, few have. But, they have all worked insanely hard and have sacrificed precious moments. I am sure their teachers and coaches are not praising a job somewhat well done. Coddling our students does not equate to self-esteem. Challenging them and having them work hard to earn rewards and positives is what will drive their self-esteem.