Self esteem and more...

Last month at my Aunt Ianthia's funeral, my cousin Dan and I had a discussion about self-esteem and how much of it the current generation of youngsters in college have. Daniel teaches at a state university and community college and I've been volunteering w/my sorority since my graduation over a decade ago, so it's safe to say that we know college students. We both agreed that the "self-esteem" movement has done more harm than good.

I was reminded of this movement when I went to Chase's parent teacher conferences this evening. They no longer use letter grades in grades 1-3 in his school district. Instead, they get a number: 1--not meeting grade level expectations 2--developing grade level expectations 3--meeting grade level expectations 4--exceeding grade level expectations in depth and complexity. I kid you not--THIS is the report card I'll get for the next three years. In case you're wondering (and you know you are), Chase got all 3s. Now, this annoys me. He hasn't gotten below a 100% on a spelling test this year (b/c of bonus words, he usually gets over 100%). I'm looking at a test w/a 93% on it and I've seen lots of those. He's a bright kid and he does well in school. But instead of As and Bs on his report card, he gets 3s. This whole nice-everyone-is-equal-crap drives me crazy because we aren't preparing our children for the real world.

Jamie's compensation is commission-based. He is rewarded when he does well at work w/a big fat paycheck. When he doesn't do well, his paycheck sucks. That's pretty powerful motivation. If he were salaried and make the same $$$ regardless of how he performed, do you think he'd work as hard as he does? Of course not. So as long as Chase is "meeting grade level expectations" he's fine at school--what is his motivation to do better? I don't see any. And that makes me mad b/c once again the need to make kids "feel good about themselves" overrules the need to prepare kids for the reality that is life. And you don't always feel good about yourself in life--that's something you need to learn (and learn to deal with) when you're growing up.

I love Chase's teacher. He loves his teacher, he loves school and he's learning and thriving. But it bothers me the way kids are coddled in our public education system these days...it really bothers me!