CURRICULUM GUIDE FOR S.C. TEACHER CADET COURSE | EXPERIENCING EDUCATION, TENTH EDITION
Theme I: Experiencing Learning
Unit 1: Awareness and Reflection
The Self-Esteem Fraud, Page 3 of 4
The researchers, therefore, could conclude safely that programs designed to provide young children
with the tools for academic success tend to be more effective as they improve on both academic performance and self-esteem.
This rule is not limited to young children. Thomas Moeller, a psychology professor at Mary Washington
College in Fredericksburg, Va., examined students in grades six and higher. In every instance, Moeller
concluded, “academic achievement is more closely related to academic self-concept than to global selfconcept.”
Other research found that although academic achievement in one grade level predicts academic selfesteem in the next, neither academic achievement nor academic self-esteem has any identifiable effect
on global self-esteem. Still other research finds that grades in a given discipline affect academic selfesteem just in that particular discipline. General academic self-concept finds its roots in a school’s climate, teachers’ ratings, and students’ commitment to work.
Adolescents’ academic performance seems not even to be a factor affecting global self-esteem. Instead,
they respond to social activities. High school performance, academic ability, and socioeconomic status
affect educational attainment more than global self-esteem...
Self-esteem theory made its first dramatic impact upon American schools in 1954, when the Supreme
Court accepted that school segregation damaged the self-esteem of African-American children in its
Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Low self-esteem, the Court said, “affects the motivation of a child
to learn, and has a tendency to retard children’s educational and mental development.” According to author Barbara Lemer, this proposition makes ... questionable assumptions.
Ironically, [adolescents] living in impoverished neighborhoods are more likely to turn violent if schools
bombard them with unearned praise. Baumeister, Boden, and Smart found that, when high self-esteem
is challenged by others’ negative views, egotism is threatened. People react in one of two ways. They
either lower their self-appraisal and withdraw or m aintain their self-appraisal and manifest negative emotions toward the source of the ego threat. This response easily can become violent in individuals who
place high emphasis on their self-appraisals.
Every day in the name of self-esteem, schools cheat low-income children...into settling for inflated egos
instead of increased knowledge. Such efforts aimed at guaranteeing minorities heightened self-esteem,
coupled with lawsuits challenging minimum competency exams and proficiency tests, erroneously assume that these youngsters’ self-esteem cannot possibly get proper nourishment in the poor households
in which they are reared. Social workers and teachers create special courses and excuses for these kids
on a regular basis.
In The Vulnerable Child, Weissbourd vehemently attacks such efforts, asserting that, “although poor
children are more likely to suffer an array...of problems, the great majority of poor children are prepared
to learn, at least when they begin school. Developmental delays and serious learning difficulties among
children ages three to five are higher among poor than among middle- and upper-income children...But
over 75 percent of poor children ages 6-11 have never experienced significant developmental delays,
or emotional troubles, or a learning disability in childhood.” Weissbourd highly discourages enrolling disadvantaged minority kids in remedial courses or special education classes because it makes it more difficult for them to move into the mainstream.
From lower standards to a reduced emphasis on tests, minorities constantly are told that their egos
somehow are more fragile and thus different from the rest of America, even though they have the most
to gain from traditional ways of teaching. In fact, blacks can flourish in this type of environment, as the
experiences of schools such as Booker T. Washington (Atlanta), Xavier Prep (New Orleans), P.S. 91
(Brooklyn), and Dunbar (Washington, DC) have shown. African-Americans excel in these schools because they are expected to strive high and achieve. Instead of offering a broad array of
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