"Self-esteem" Not What It Used To Be

A couple of decades of boosting children's self-esteem turns out to not have much effect on a student's grades. Oh, praise is still seen as effective, but educators are beginning to reward students for more than just showing up.
A growing body of research over three decades shows that easy, unearned praise does not help students but instead interferes with significant learning opportunities. As schools ratchet up academic standards for all students, new buzzwords are “persistence,” “risk-taking” and “resilience” — each implying more sweat and strain than fuzzy, warm feelings.

“We used to think we could hand children self-esteem on a platter,” Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck said. “That has backfired.”

Dweck’s studies, embraced in Montgomery schools and elsewhere, have found that praising children for intelligence — “You’re so clever!” — also backfires. In study after study, children rewarded for being smart become more likely to shy away from hard assignments that might tarnish their star reputations.

But children praised for trying hard or taking risks tend to enjoy challenges and find greater success. Children also perform better in the long term when they believe that their intellect is not a birthright but something that grows and develops as they learn new things.

Link -via TYWKIWDBI

(Image credit: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

My 9th grader defended her falling algebra grade by complaining about the teacher, that she had no concern about her students' self-esteem. This is high school!

I said, "Welcome to the real world, kid. Nobody cares about your self-esteem. Everyone cares about results."

I added that her mother cared about her self-esteem, but right now her grades matter more.
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Oh thank goodness someone has finally "figured" that out. It has only been known to most anybody who has gone through the school systems. Maybe now schools will get rid of those condescending "you participated" ribbons and such. When there is no winner there is nothing to strive for and no reward for excellence. Thus, we've created a large generation of lemmings which can only hurt our development as humans and the work force within our borders. Praise what deserves to be praised, like hard work and exceptional work. Not just that somebody was somewhere (unless that happens to be an achievement for them).
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Been saying this for years (See: The Handbook of Self and Identity by Mark R Leary: A Sociological reference manual on self) Look up sections on self-determination theory and contingencies of self-worth. Also see: The Totalitarian Ego, Projection of the contingencies of self-worth into interpersonal circumplex space, the pursuit of self-esteem, contingencies of self-worth, altered egos, the ego tunnel, attachment styles and contingencies of self-worth and the narcissism epidemic. Most of the material is sitting here on my desktop waiting to be fired off to anyone who cares and it's been that way for years as I've tried to share this understanding of self-hood and the contingent regard of significant others. Due to the subject matter being so close to the heart, I've yet to find anyone interested in the material. But I have found lots of people that could benefit from it. (i.e. everyone in a given society).
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The critical point is what they call in Self-Determination Theory as "Introjection". It's a type of thought-behavior that evaluates the self in comparative fashion within a contingent domain of self-worth by projection of the contingent regard of significant others. In contrast to this type of mental activity researchers identify "hypoegoic" mental states that are absent of introjection. Introjection occurs in a child when the parents have either praised them or punished them egoically. The difference has entirely to do with a conscious self-evaluation and introjection is the process of valuating the self by considering what others will think. According to researchers almost all of us do it all the time. Sociologist Irving Goffman coined the term Dramaturgy to describe the fact that all human behavior is basically an act approximating shared ideals about valuating self-worth. He says that in any situation there will usually be some reason for an 'actor' to withhold their real feelings and engage in a deceptive act. When it comes to the maintenance of self-esteem people will make irrational sacrifices and disease and death are linked to introjection. Moreover social polarization provides fertile ground for comparative self-worth, so the pursuit of self-esteem can tear civilizations apart by fueling social schisms. A lot of dualities come out of the woodwork to facilitate the pursuit of self-esteem, dualities like: Democrat and Republican, Theist and Atheist, Gay and Straight. Just about anything to grant one an identity reflecting some relative (contingent) self-esteem.
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Praise them for hard work, dedication, perseverance and trying something new or creative--who'da thunk? However, this goes hand in hand with not valuing finding the right answer and only the right answer. (Granted, I'm an English teacher, not a math teacher.) A little less testing, a little more emphasis on projects and creative thought and troubleshooting would be ideal.
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Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QfElEEQFqs

It's a video I made somewhat outlining "Self-Presentational Concern" and the maintenance of self-esteem. It's not complete or very entertaining, but very informative.
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I keep seeing this pop up on blogs and then people complain about participation ribbons and telling kids they're unique and great. I don't see the two issues as connected. These articles are all about how praise for things that kids can't control is bad. Saying wow you're so smart is pretty much the same as saying wow you're so strong, it isn't motivating and while he student might be smart for a 4th grade or a high school student they aren't real world grown up smart and they are guaranteed to come up against something that'll humble them at some point so praise should always be for effort. As far as participation ribbons and praise for doing your best why not? Getting kids to do stuff is harder than ever with all the amazing toys they have competing for their attention why not say hey just trying is worth a thank you.
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The original problem was teachers being dicks to kids. You don't need to feed kids self esteem, just stop destroying what little they have so they can build up more.
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I grew up in the Washington area, and joined Fairfax County's gifted program the year I became old enough. In the gifted program, were led to believe that we were somehow better than the "regular" kids, that we were by definition high achievers, and that we were going to go on to have great jobs in life. This is a lot to lay on a kid in elementary school, and it took a long, long time to learn that none of this was necessarily true.

Anyway, I posted this article on facebook yesterday, and a bunch of my fellow former gifted children chimed in to agree with it and the above. Being told how smart we were did us a disservice - when things didn't come easy to us, we felt like we couldn't let it be known, because then we'd be revealed not to be smart. And when we got out of school into the real world, it turned out that just being naturally somewhat smart was not at all enough.

What's funny is that all these years, I thought I was the only one who had had a number done on them by all the things we were told as "gifted" children - but it turns out a great many of my peers felt the same. I got a lot out of the program - I wouldn't not join it, given the choice again - but I hope the kids in it these days aren't being fed such deleterious messages.
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Just know that self is a misnomer. What is really going on there is an aggregate of somatosensory processes. It can be said either that there is no one or that there is only one (totality). All this kind of disorder in society can be traced back to the predominance of delusions about self-hood. Self-hood can be a prison for the mind causing despair and elation depend on one's ability to see themselves as an integral and valuable part of a larger system. In truth, because the self is an aggregate, it is already always an integral part of a larger system. It is just misrepresented in every aspect of culture.
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Bullies have self-esteem issues too, that's why they are bullies. The ancients used to project all of their sins into a goat which they would either kick off their land or sacrifice on the altar to some god. This is where we get the term "scapegoat" from. "Scape" is a late 13th century aphetic form of "escape", so the term could be written as "escapegoat" if this better illustrates the nature of the act. We can escape from our sins by projecting it all onto some child, punishing them and patting ourselves on the back for what good people we are. This will protect us from facing the larger issue of a misguided and corrupt society (the reason we have bullies in the first place). Its just like we do with so-called "Criminals".
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