Today's paper has a story about self-esteem.... As a Brit, it's not something often discussed, at least for my generation.
I wonder what other visitors to the pasture would make of it...
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jun/03/quasi-religious-great-self-esteem-con
Iiiiinteresting. I'm half-tempted to use this as a reading on the use and misuse of scientific studies and their results in my classes, in part to see how the students react. The only problem is that our students don't generally seem to be quite so steeped in the self-esteem culture as more privileged young people.
ReplyDeleteIt's also interesting to note that all this began shortly *after* I graduated from college, so there really was a major cultural shift, which I think I've seen mostly in a very different attitude toward non-A grades among my students than my peers.
There's a lot of interesting reading in the comments there, CC, and I hadn't known the (at least somewhat) scientific history of self-esteem, only the version peddled by the "everyone gets a prize" brigade.
DeleteI'm not sure if this article would help or hurt my students. They might pick up on the use and misuse aspects, or may feel they're entitled to more self-esteem-centric instruction.
It's all a bit appreciative inquiry-ish for me.
I graduated high school in 1986, and like Cassandra, I feel like I missed this whole thing in terms of my upbringing and education in both undergrad and grad school. When I had children of my own, (late 90s) I was genuinely shocked at the way people handled children in school and at sporting events.
ReplyDeleteThe focus on self esteem in the US is certainly one cause for the decline we proffies have seen.
Scientific American had an article debunking self esteem in its December 2005 issue ("Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth"). Scientific American Mind ran a follow-up cover story on this in its October/November 2013 issue ("Self-Esteem Can Be an Ego Trap"). But of course, neither were nearly as damning as what George Carlin had to say about it in 2008, here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G65bUrOJw2s (NSFW!)
It's been ten years now, and yet all of this is still news to our School of Education. Like a large dinosaur with its back broken, self-esteem will thrash about violently for a very long time before it finally dies, but then this being California, it will take no time flat for them to move onto their next abomination.