Teacher Feel-Good

The battle cry "Self-esteem for all!" has echoed in schools throughout the land in recent years. Children are being taught that they are special, and what’s the harm in that? Well, for starters, we are creating a generation of self-centered underachievers, charges education professor Maureen Stout in her new book The Feel-Good Curriculum: The Dumbing Down of America’s Kids in the Name of Self-Esteem (Perseus). Assistant Managing Editor Rachel Hartigan spoke with Stout about the perils of self-esteem education.

Q. When you talk about self-esteem, what do you mean?

A. For me, self-esteem is feeling good about yourself and having confidence because you have done something to merit it: You’ve worked toward a goal, worked hard in school, or helped your family. I do think it’s very important for children to feel good about themselves, but it’s dangerous if it’s for no good reason. Unfortunately, that’s the way it seems to be taught.

Q. Proponents of self-esteem say that if children feel better about themselves, they will probably do better in school. Does that seem likely to you?

A. There is no research-based evidence that high self-esteem of the kind that is currently promoted improves student achievement or reduces behavioral problems. In fact, a couple of studies say that high self-esteem is an indicator of future aggressive behavior. Do we want people to feel good about themselves for no reason at all? What we have are students saying, "I’m so wonderful, I’m so smart," whether or not their actions merit it. We’ve divorced our feelings about ourselves from our actions. I see it in self-esteem manuals: Just because Johnny cheated on a test or beat up his friend doesn’t mean...