The Feel-Good Curriculum

The so-called self-esteem movement-a progressive, child-centreed, discovery model of schooling-has transformed schools into therapeutic clinics and teachers into counselors, creating a generation of entitled, righteous, underachieving children. An insider's account of the pernicious aspects of this seemingly well-meaning movement, The Feel-Good Curriculum provides devastating evidence that our belief in the power and importance of self-esteem in education is misplaced and without basis.Avoiding political posturing and political correctness, The Feel-Good Curriculum identifies the four specific effects of self-esteem's stranglehold on our schools-narcissism, emotivism, separatism, and cynicism. It prescribes antidotes to them-empathy, rationality and morality, connectedness, and skepticism-and offers a hopeful view of educational philosophy for the next millennium. Professor Stout urges us to replace our coddling, indulgent approach to building self-esteem in children with a sense of authentic self-confidence developed from intellectual, physical, and moral effort and achievement.

Maureen Stout is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the California State University, Northridge. She lives in Los Angeles.

The so-called self-esteem movement-a progressive, child-centreed, discovery model of schooling-has transformed schools into therapeutic clinics and teachers into counselors, creating a generation of entitled, righteous, underachieving children. An insider's account of the pernicious aspects of this seemingly well-meaning movement, The Feel-Good Curriculum provides devastating evidence that our belief in the power and importance of self-esteem in education is misplaced and without basis.Avoiding political posturing and political correctness, The Feel-Good Curriculum identifies the four specific effects of self-esteem's stranglehold on our schools-narcissism, emotivism, separatism, and cynicism. It prescribes antidotes to them-empathy, rationality and morality, connectedness, and skepticism-and offers a hopeful view of educational philosophy for the next millennium. Professor Stout urges us to replace our coddling, indulgent approach to building self-esteem in children with a sense of authentic self-confidence developed from intellectual, physical, and moral effort and achievement.

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