But, that's what we did. Something about "self-esteem." Turns out that maybe this whole "self-esteem' movement, aka "the empty praise movement," has damaged a generation or two of youngsters. Full essay is here. A few excerpts here:
"Children who are told that they are brilliant do less well than do children who are praised for their effort."
"The empty praise movement taught parents and teachers to lie to children, systematically and shamelessly."
"It should not be surprising that the more you lie to children the less they will believe anything that you say."
"Children who are told that they are naturally talented and gifted conclude that they do not need to make an effort. They believe that their innate abilities will allow them to breeze through any task. If anything goes wrong they do not have a work ethic to allow them to soldier on."
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Going thru a bit of a scandal here in our hometown. Seems that the grade school thru high school teachers (for years) have been not only hinting at the answers to students during statewide standardized testing, but have also been feeding them the correct answers. This was backed up not only by students interviewed but also by supplemental proctors assigned to the test areas from other school.
ReplyDeletedistricts. The parents are in denial - they're sure that the teachers only had the students' best interests in mind...yep, everybody is a winner...