If we were a newsmagazine, we’d have our next cover story ready to go. We’ve got three data points and lots of anecdotes about how the wheels are coming off the self-esteem movement. It looks like the counter-revolution has hit the mainstream.

First, in “The Truth About Harvard” in the March Atlantic, Ross Douthat quotes Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield blaming “the prevalence in American higher education of the notion of self-esteem” for Harvard’s well-publicized problem with grade inflation. Mansfield argues that “according to that therapeutic notion, the purpose of education is to make students feel capable and ‘empowered,’ and professors should hesitate to pass judgment on what students have learned.” (We will leave comments about the purpose of education being to learn as a project for the reader).

Also in the Atlantic, Sandra Tsing Loh reviews several new parenting books in the hilarious “The Marshal Plan,” and provides valuable background about where we’ve been:

At some point, which is to say the late 1990s, the focus of parenting shifted almost entirely away from preparing kids for, among other things, the dangers, responsibilities, and unpredictability of life. Or, it’s just possible to imagine, parents decided that children’s self-esteem was the best defense against an unkind world, and so they set about—while they still could — staging a million Truman Shows to ensure outcomes that were never less than validating for their little ones. Well, buckle your seat belts: the backlash is here …

She comments on nineties parenting bible “Becoming the Parent You Want to Be:”

“… when tough subjects are eventually broached, however, the wisdom is not quick-fix. Here’s one part of Becoming’s seventeen-part strategy on dealing with tantrums:

“Remind yourself that tantrums are a measure of intimacy. Children usually reserve their tantrums for the most trusted, safe, and consistent people in their lives — their parents. The next time your child is having a tantrum, remind yourself you’re being chosen because your child feels close to you.”

Loh continues that this book “hint(s) at thinking that gave rise to parenting based a wee bit much on children’s self-esteem, by which over-permissive parents cradle, murmur sweet nothings to, and, coincidentally, form living body armor around a spoiled child who bystanders feel just needs a whack on the butt (humanely swift, scrupulously open-handed, and carefully rage-free as it may be).”Lastly, USA Today — can’t get more mainstream than that — reports:

… often-empty phrases (such as ‘great job at going up to bat’) … raised a generation. Kids born in the ’70s and ’80s are now coming of age. The colorful ribbons and shiny trophies they earned just for participating made them feel special. But now, in college and the workplace, observers are watching them crumble a bit at the first blush of criticism.

“I often get students in graduate school doing doctorates who made straight A’s all their lives, and the first time they get tough feedback, the kind you need to develop skills,” says Deborah Stipek, dean of education at Stanford University. “I have a box of Kleenex in my office because they haven’t dealt with it before.”

… Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University … has noticed that the undergraduates she teaches tend to have an inflated sense of self. “When you correct writing, they’ll say, ‘It’s just your opinion,’ which is infuriating. Bad grammar and spelling and sentences being wrong is not my opinion, it’s just bad writing,” she says.

We say — about time! The whole self-esteem movement was like many education experiments* — unsupported by research, counter to common sense, damaging when put into practice, yet with so much inertia it will take ten years to get back to ‘normal.’

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* in 1973 this writer attended a brand new elementary school which had grades 1 - 6 — about 360 kids — in one giant room. It was supposed to enhance learning! Also on the litany: whole language, new math, untracking by ability, and a slew of other bad ideas.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 16th, 2005 at 10:53 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable, Big Thoughts, Politically Correct ... and stupid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.