Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Self-esteem fad has gone too far, psychologist tells teachers

Carolyn Moynihan

The lingering obsession with boosting children’s self esteem has been given the thumbs down by a Scottish psychologist, who says the idea has gone too far. “We are wrong in thinking we have to get the ‘I’ bigger,” said Dr Carol Craig, speaking at a British school and college leaders conference. “If we say to people the most important thing is how you feel about yourself, then if a child fails maths and feels bad, it is very tempting for them to blame it on others like teachers and parents. Parents no longer want to hear if their children have done anything wrong. This is the downside of the self esteem agenda.”

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/self_esteem_fad_has_gone_too_far_psychologist_tells_teachers/#comments

1 comment:

Sikantis said...

Self-esteem is strongly connected with esteem. In a society where it's not normal that we give each other esteem just for being here and for having our talents it's difficult to develop self-esteem.