‘Self-Esteem Is Earned’

I am in agreement with Schmoker. “Groundless praise” may encourage complacency, but more importantly this form of patronizing behavior has no place in our educational system where it breeds contempt among its students. During the ‘60s this contempt was concerned with the “hypocrisy” reflected in middle-class values. It is disquieting to consider the ways in which our educators still encourage these same attitudes.

Unfortunately, the onus of failure permeates middle-class values and teaches the young that “one can never do enough.” The resulting stress leads many students to drop out, or to set lesser goals for themselves. Most parents want their children to go to college, and in particular those parents who never went to college themselves. These same people confuse what is “great about America” and what has been “good for Japan.”

The most unfair comparison to date concerns the test-score differences among Korean, and Japanese students, who score higher than American students in mathematics. The fact being many Far Eastern countries start winnowing out their lesser achievers in the lower grades. There is no room for the late bloomer, or the quirky genius to flower, for the term “self” as used in the Orient is something quite different from the “self” we refer to in Western culture. The fact that Korean students ranked themselves last in mathematics, when in fact they were first, demonstrates a lack of self-esteem by Western standards.

What we call self-esteem is that quality which most often encourages a student to rebel, and it is the ideal behind the student movement for democracy in China. Self-esteem, in order to grow, must have self-expression. Yet many school administrators, well-schooled themselves in crisis management, have adopted a patronizing attitude which rewards mediocrity and breeds contempt. Yes, tougher standards apply, but fewer constraints as well, which seems to me to be the essence of the American experience.

DAVID C. REUTTER

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