U.S. Teens Brimming With Self-Esteem
I don't think any of us here are shocked by this. We all saw it coming. When they started giving out participation trophies at track (just as big as the ones the winner got). When they stopped keeping score at soccer and basketball games (so no one feels bad). When just showing up to class got you a B and showing a little effort got you an A. When kids started feeling entitled to a plasma TV, and an Xbox, and a new cell phone, and a car when they got their license. A new car, mind you. And their parents obliged. If everyone is saying that you're the best, why would believe otherwise?
This is my favorite quote from the article: "These kids didn't raise themselves, they got these ideas from somewhere," Twenge said.
Amen.
Heidi
13 comments:
Hmmm...does this mean that when Pres.-elect BOHICA makes college available to everyone, some of them won't "really" be smart enough to go?
I'm shocked!!!
Or maybe they'll be too smart to go? I'd love to see the stats on these kids when they go out into the real world and have to face reality.
hey - these kids will make excellent McDonald's employees, if only we could get them to show up on time
I graduated in the 70's with an A+ average. I NEVER expected to have the lifestyle of my parents' the minute I graduated from high school like kids today do. We worked hard and scraped by most of our adult lives. Now the kids just get as many credit cards as they need to "afford" what their parents can't or won't give them. Next thing you'll know, they'll be asking for a handout from their new president most of them voted for.
Gosh, Bugger, you are so right. I see that even in people as old as my generation. My brother, as much as I love him, is a “reward first, work later” type of a guy.
I’ve been saying for years, even back t when I was a kid, that this self-esteem movement was a well-intentioned mistake. As a boy of 8, I remember very clearly asking my teacher in confidence why everyone should feel so good about themselves, when some people were so obviously failing.
She replied to me that it was because the people that were failing shouldn’t have to go through life feeling like failures, that they were good people just like anyone else, and should feel just as good.
I replied, of course in a much more child-like manner, but the intent was the same, that I didn’t believe that X kid in my class was a very good person, because he was rude, abusive, mean, and stupid, and that he shouldn’t get to feel good about himself for being that way. I also mentioned criminals, and how they should not be encouraged to feel good about themselves just because they exist.
Even as a child I understood the value of societal shame, now that I think back on the exchange, because I was so confused about why we all should want everyone to feel good about themselves when they were obviously not good people. There is inherent value to failures feeling like failures, because if they don’t, there is no pressure to succeed. If you get to celebrate failure the same as success, and reward it just the same, then why the FUCK would anyone put the effort into succeeding? It is a lot of work. Sans reward for that work, why do it at all?
Oh, I think I just nutshelled the reason socialism doesn’t work. Oh, I think maybe I just tied this self-esteem movement to socialism.
Oh, shit, I think self-esteem is just one more step towards socialist indoctrination. If everyone is equal, no one is exceptional, and in that climate, and only in that climate, can socialism really succeed.
"Self Confidence"
Yeah right.
Wait till they're married. That'll cure that.
Um, let's see....
The kids see themselves as all being equal, no one of them lesser or greater.
That'll help them fit right in as the 'working class' in the (coming soon) Marxist America.
Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to the labor camp we go.
Making new roads, in more ways than one.
Spoon;
That's not really it. Every one of them thinks they are better than the other. THAT is what leads to socialism and marxism. When people that think that they are better, smarter, and more original than anyone else, they take power and give everyone what they think is best for them. That is what causes socialism. It isn't a quest for equality, it is a quest for elitism by those setting it in motion (with the exception of Lenin's "useful idiots").
If you don't believe me, check out the Teddy Kennedy quote, circa, IIRC, 1986 when he was accosted on the senate floor by a conservative, saying "socialism has failed every time it has been tried the world over, why do you want to try it again?"
Teddy's reply?
"It only failed because I wasn't in charge!"
Like I said, thinking you're smarter and better than anyone else, and knowing that you know what is best for them, no matter what they want, is the root of socialism. It isn't equality, it's elitism.
That is what this bullshit self-esteem movement gives us. Unfounded, unearned elitism.
Goober,
your so full of it. Teachers don't really think that way.
Steve;
I didn't claim to know what she actually THOUGHT about the situation; all I know is that during our discussion, she regurgitated the party line. As an adult, thinking back on it, I doubt very seriously that she believed what she was telling me. However, she had been taught in teaching school that this is what she was supposed to teach us, and that this is what she was supposed to say.
My Mom is a teacher and it pisses her off that she has to teach some of the things she does. Self-esteem is one of them. She doesn't believe a lick of any of it, and really, truly has animosity towards the bad kids in her class; the currculum demands, however, that she teach that child that he is special and unique and just a good as everyone else.
It matters not what she really believes.
I was raised with the understanding that I was sinful and later, when I entered school, the understanding that I was "slow [read, stupid]." I strived to be honest, to not do "sinful" things and most of all to not be "slow." I do not blame my parents or my teachers for the manner in which I was raised and in which I was taught. They were doing the best they could, given what they had. What this early adveristy taught me was that people do not succeed in spit of adversity; they succeed because of it. Self esteem, especially unwaranted self esteem in the face of all evidence to the contrary is not an advantage in life. I am in no manner suggesting that parents raise their children, telling them that they are evil or stupid; but a realistic assessment of their skills would certainly be helpful.
Dude,
it was sarcasm.
I do not see how anyone can teach SELF esteem. Doesn't something labeled self have to come from inside? If anyone paid attention to these little kids as they come off of the field or court after a game ,the first thing most of them want to know is "how many points did we score" or "who won". Even they know that the reason for playing is to see who wins or else why play? If someone else give you esteem then it is not SELF esteem is it?
Post a Comment