
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 24, 1995                   TAG: 9502240086
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EGO INFLATION

STREWING STARS across the worksheets of every child in America doesn't make all of their work stellar, let's face it. The kids already have. As usual, they're way ahead of their folks.

A widely accepted education theory goes: If you teach a child self-esteem, his or her achievement will soar. Make 'em feel successful and they will succeed. This is nice. Pain-free. And, as it turns out, as real as one-eyed, one-horned flying Purple People-Eaters.

Conservatives have said that teaching self-esteem is worthless about as long as the concept has been around. More convincing than the carping, though, is the evidence of California scholars who expected to find a cause-and-effect relationship between self-esteem and socially acceptable behavior - and didn't.

Back in 1990, they reported finding a "non-relationship" between self-esteem and teen pregnancy, child abuse "and most cases of alcohol and drug use." The Washington Post cited the study in a report this week about a growing third school of thought that sees self-esteem as important, but only part of an achievement equation that must include real accomplishment and good relationships with others.

Indiscriminate, unearned praise rings as false to children as it does to adults. And it can do more harm than good, undermining the accomplishment one should feel after really achieving something significant. Merely feeling good about one's self isn't the end society should be seeking, anyway. How much better it would be if, rather than simply assuring kids they are good, adults would expect them to be good - and praise them when they are.

And how much more accomplished children would be, rather than feel, if adults would respect their strengths and encourage them to rise to challenges, rather than teach them to fear failure or, worse, simply call it success.

Real mastery of any skill boosts a child's self-esteem. And the kid won't be so easily fooled as doting parents.

by CNB