Compared with the Baby Boomers who were seniors in 1975, 12th-graders surveyed in 2006 were much more confident they’d be “very good” employees, mates and parents, and they were more self-satisfied overall, say Twenge and co-author W. Keith Campbell of the University of Georgia. Between half and two-thirds of the Gen Y teens gave themselves top ratings, compared with less than half in their parents’ generation. The report is in Psychological Science.
Boomer parents “are more likely than their parents were to praise children ”” and maybe overpraise them,” Twenge says. This can foster great expectations or perhaps even smugness about one’s chances of reaching “the stars” at work and in family life, she adds. “Their narcissism could be a recipe for depression later when things don’t work out as well as they expected.”
we have been “successful” on the self esteem front.
Plus ça change!
Ah. Yes! I remember 1982, teaching the “developmental class” at Huron College, (now defunct) in Huron, S.D. My 12 students had high self esteem, were in college on athletic scholarship, and had a total, combined ACT of Zero. These young men were barely literate, say maybe 2nd grade level. My classes were designed to help them learn to read, write, spell, listen intelligently, and keep them eligible for sports for the 5 years of their college careers…put that last one first. In addition, I was to attend Biology Class with them and make sure they passed the tests. They did not know that they did not know because they had never been in a setting that required them compare themselves with anyone better educated.
We have a 25 year old grand daughter who attended a private French high school in L.A. Her self esteem was, is, so high that she tends to treat the rest of the family like cretins, but she has not been able to complete her undergraduate studies. Probably because she assumes that she already knows more than her professors.
It is sad that these young people have never had the advantage of being allowed to fail. Failure is so important to devoping an accurate self concept.
Frances so right:
“It is sad that these young people have never had the advantage of being allowed to fail. Failure is so important to devoping an accurate self concept. ” My successful attorney grandson sent me an on line video of pictures from the “great depression”. I replied that though I was just a baby, many of those pictures could represent the war years. He replied; “yes, it’s too bad that was the beginning of the welfare system.” I replied that he didn’t know what he was talking about in that work relief gave my father the opportunity to work to put bread on the table for his three small children, and that he (my grandson) should read up on the depression and when he knew what he was talking about, to get back to me. Needless to say he knew he had run into a buzz saw….He is a new father, and hopefully he and his family won’t experience “a depression” or what some families are already going through, but I did ask him to imagine his not being able to feed that new baby girl…..he came back and acknowledged that perhaps he had miss spoken and he appreciated my knowledge and input to his gain of practical knowledge……sometimes we just have to bring that younger generation up by their heels and make them listen…sigh…
Kendall posted a 60 Minutes piece on this a while back too.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml
I am a librarian and I see these kids everyday. Their parents and teachers and teachers haven’t even taught them enough for them to even sense how little they actually know. They live in a bubble of privilege and ignorance. It is all summed up for me by a comment from a teacher evaluation I received when I was doing student teaching at the University of Notre Dame. “Made us read boring books by people like Dostoevsky and Graham Greene.” I am sure the kid who wrote that had buckets of self esteem.
About a month and a half ago, I attended an Engineering Management session where [url=http://www.vulcanhammer.org/?p=1240]the same thing was brought up[/url]. It does make for challenging HR work.
That session also made it clear why the election was going the way it eventually went.
Oh, I’m living this nightmare! My son started school at the height of the “self-esteem” craze. His elementary school even had a self-esteem building bear named Sunny whose job it was to wander the halls, give kids hugs and tell them how special they are. While I was strict and worked to cultivate responsibility at home, the teachers and counselors were busy “understanding” my gifted student, telling him (and me) that it was perfectly normal for him to eschew daily work and lose assignments because he’s a “creative, big thinker.”
Sigh, fast forward to the present. He’s now a sophomore at a major university. A VERY bright and personable young man who dreams big but can’t seem to pick a major. Although he showed great aptitude for math and science, he washed out of engineering because he couldn’t keep up with that “pesky” daily work in calculus. So many excuses were made for him by the teachers in high school that he’s having trouble coping with a university workload.
I’m trying to get him to join ROTC to instill the discipline that he needs and that his former teachers and guidance counselors called “stifling.” Pray for us!
Interesting. I am currently getting my teacher’s certification and have thought about this quite a bit. This same “self-esteem” bs is being applied to sports and school field days now where every kid gets a trophy or ribbon whether they win or lose. Some sports leagues don’t even keep score (although I am certain the kids who play are) to be “fair.” This does nothing to teach children about good sportsmanship (especially about learning how to lose gracefully) and humility.
Not in my classroom. The last class I took for my certification had a section on identifying “gifted and talented” students, how often those children who are considered “gifted” (like myself) tend to act out, withdraw, not turn in homework, or have major social problems to name a few. It is our job as teachers to teach them, yes, but also to find an appropriate means of instilling a good work ethic in them.
When I was in elementary my school had a self-esteem building program for children whose parents were alcoholic/abusive/etc. The only thing I ever got out of that program was that I was happy I didn’t have to go to a boring classroom for an hour a week. Not quite the outcome they expected, I’m sure.
Oddly enough the teachers I now remember and respect the most were the ones who had strong classroom management skills and weren’t afraid to be the teachers who laid down the rules and expected students to follow them (while having clear and following through with consequences for not following them). I wish they had all been like that.
I work part time in retail….yes, the young applicants for these jobs are smart, but they don’t have the foggiest of how to retain a job. Come in late, want to leave early, call 5 minutes before work time to say they can’t make it because they have a hang nail……we used to say that they had book sense but not common sense – now they have neither……they don’t even pick up books…..its all on a big screenfor them….kinda like the megga churches…..give them a show they can understand……don’t use their gray matter between their ears……a good come uppens is in order ……..give me a kid who knows how to play with paper dolls and little toy cowboys, and I will show you a future thinker…….give me a kid who is a computer game expert and I will show you a non-thinker……
Grace, How did they determine which children had alcoholic/abusive parents? Did they ask the child? Did they show up on your doorstep one night? And I agree about the sort of teachers I remember and admire. However, I gave up the idea of teaching because I found that it was next to impossible to BE that kind of teacher now. When I was doing student teaching at Notre Dame, a top rated undergraduate institution, I asked a professor, himself a Stanford grad, how to grade papers. He told me, in all seriousness, to first determine what the test or paper deserved, and then bump it up a letter grade. I kid you not. So how could these kids not have an inflated idea of their intelligence, when we are systematically lying to them?
Here’s an excellent example of teaching a child responsibility. My grand-daughter-in-law is Navaho and teaches that language in a bi-lingual classroom. Her son, my eldest great-grand, is in first grade in the same school. Last spring, as a kindergartner, he decided he did not want to participate in the all-school dance program and told his mother that (he had a solo performance and was scared). She said, “That’s fine, Isaiah, you don’t have to dance, but you do have to call your teacher and tell her that you don’t want to.” Isaiah danced and turned in a top-notch performance! He also learned that it was his own responsibility to communicate with his teacher and not to expect his mother to do it for him.
Three yea””rs ago I spent a long year of my life obtaining a State Teaching Credential. I was easily 20 years older than my fellow students. I WELL recall the day that we ‘discussed’ the ‘inequity’ of Spelling Bees (!) because ‘the losers have their self-esteem publicly damaged’ (!) When I pointed out that perhaps the ‘winner’ is outshined in other areas of school life, I was haughtily asked (by the teacher leading the seminar) “Did you WIN spelling bees?” I replied honestly, “Often, but not always” — the other students smugly nodded to each other as the teacher proclaimed, “Well, that’s why you think they are OK! The students who did not win were hurt! It delayed their learning and turned them off to school!” (More smug grins and nods). Sicksicksick! (BTW: the very first person in our class to be hired was the only black woman enrolled — who repeatedly FAILED the exams testing her readiness to teach reading or math on an elemantary level! We were all very concerned for her, because obvioulsy she was on the verge of flunking out. Her hiring principal remarked, “That’s OK, you can write a paper for me or something.” And this was to take the place of demanding, day-long exams for which the rest of us (white, one and all) were forced to prepare and sweat through?!? Honestly, I would NOT have believed it if I hadn’t experienced it myself! And yes, I’m a solid member of the Democratic Party….this is just one example: she got the job because “it would raise the self-esteem of the children of color at her school to see her teaching”! (She lasted two years, and quit).
LOL, Little Cabbage, that sounds familiar! Upon seeing what sort of teachers were in the classroom nowadays, I decided to get my teaching credentials, too. I soon learned that you have to give ’em what they want on the certification exams and in the ed. courses and then do what you know is best in the classroom. They are two different worlds.
I wouldn’t lie about my teaching philosophies, though, when it came to interviews and the big, “progressive” districts weren’t interested. However, God put me where He wanted me — in a dirt poor district right on the U.S.-Mexico border. They were so happy to have a teacher who was solid in her subject and who cared passionately that they gave me the benefit of the doubt and I gave them results.
The self-esteem craze is all baloney. It is all the product of a few pop-psychologists who needed to make money selling books and articles. Self-ish-ness is the main problem. According to scripture, the main source of sin is pride and vanity, and all the self-esteem-ers want to do is fan the flame. At the age of 62, I can say I have never, not even once, won a trophy. I did get one “letter”, in 1963, after participating in school band for six years. It’s in a box somewhere. My grandchildren have already received enough trophies, ribbons and awards to fill a display case.
There was a similar piece on Mars Hill Audio some few journals ago. Very interesting….
Odd. There is nothing new or surprising here, is there. We all knew this. And I remember members of this blog defending the Baby Boomers left and right – well, mostly left. This is the same generation that has made hooking up – cheap free sex, often and regular – a mandatory social skill. What is there left to say about forty years of liberal narcissism and immediate gratification? And this IS the left wing at work, all over the country. LM
#11, tawser
Honestly, I don’t remember. I think the program might have been mentioned in a school newsletter or something that was sent out to every parent or participation was suggested after periods of observation of the child. Who knows, I was in elementary school at the time and I don’t remember too much of it. That was a long time ago for me.