Self-esteem is best built by earning it
July 12, 2009
News Herald – Juliann Talkington
Low-self esteem has been blamed for many problems facing U.S. youth, including substance abuse and poor academic performance. In response to these claims, an industry has sprung up to make sure U.S. kids think about themselves in positive ways. In fact, if you type “self-esteem children” into Google, almost 17 million matches are produced.
Psychologists split self-esteem into two categories, earned and global. Nina Shokrali Rees, head of the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education, says earned self-esteem is based on the premise that achievement comes first and self-esteem follows. Global self-esteem maintains that self-esteem must come first and achievement will follow.
Until about 30 years ago, earned self-esteem was prevalent in the U.S. Now global self-esteem has become popular in educational circles, the media and in parenting philosophies.
According to Rees, earned self-esteem needs no nurturing. It will develop almost naturally as young people make worthwhile accomplishments.
Global self-esteem, on the other hand, requires active intervention on the part of teachers, parents and other authority figures. It involves “tricking” kids into thinking that everything they do is praiseworthy. Giving all children who play soccer trophies, not correcting a child when he/she colors outside the lines and finding a medical diagnosis that allows a “normal” child an excuse not to pay attention in class all fall into the global self-esteem category.
Any intelligent kid sees through the hypocrisy of this approach. Many decide they will get similar feedback regardless of what they do and take the easy (lazy) way out.
In 1986, a group of California state legislators set up the California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility to prove low self-esteem was the root cause of a number of social and economic problems. Surprisingly, the task force found almost no connection between self-esteem and any of the behaviors they studied.
By the time the results were released, the global self-esteem movement was well under way with educators, psychologists and parents. Since this movement began, U.S. academic performance has dropped in international comparisons and young people have continued to commit crimes and abuse drugs.
So it looks like it is time to return to what works, allowing children to build self-worth by accomplishment. This not only encourages a strong work ethic but also avoids deception. Most importantly, it allows adults to set an example for what is required for success and happiness.
