At all ages, we are boosters of ourselves, over-confident of our abilities and talents. Girls are supposed to lose self-esteem in high school, but it may be more accurate to say that they're less grandiose than teenage boys, who earn lower grades, use more drugs and get in other kinds of trouble common to people who think they know better than everyone else. Punish its failure or absence. Don't worry about hurting kids' self-esteem. Worry about letting them grow up without the ability to control their impulses, channel their energies, build on their strengths and cope with their failures.
People use drugs to feel good.
But there are no shortcuts. Joanne Jacobs is a member of the San Jose Mercury News editorial board. Her column appears on Mondays and Thursdays. The information you receive on-line from Mercury Center is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, or repurposing of any copyright-protected material.