Yet sporting competition is seen as healthy and strongly encouraged in school. Failure to win and self esteem don t seem to matter here. Many teachers now believe that instilling self-esteem should be a paramount goal of child rearing and education. Or so the story goes. Educators have soaked up the message trying to make their students feel good about themselves no matter how badly they perform.
Testing is seen as bad because it compares children to each other.
In other words, the best tool to see if learning has taken place is not used. Discipline is rejected as dangerous to children's self-esteem. But, if teaching self-esteem is done the wrong way, you can raise a generation of kids who cannot tolerate frustration. The idea that you can solve problems simply by telling kids they're great is so seductive that no one wants to admit it doesn't do any good. Giving kids something they can truly feel proud of is hard work for everyone.