In earlier generations, teachers worried about students mastering skills rather than having high self-esteem. They knew that high self-esteem in the long run was the product of high achievement, not the other way around. But, based on spurious beliefs about what determines human performance, the emphasis of education has changed dramatically over the past two to three decades.
The unfortunate result is an epidemic of students with high self-esteem and low achievement. The culprit is an educational system, and a society that values the individual’s feelings over his performance, what he perceives over what he learns, and how well he knows himself over how well he knows math, science, or reading.
In fact, the situation has reached the point where a substantially higher percentage of students believe they are doing well than the percentage that really is doing well. For example, according to surveys, most American high school students think they excel at math. However, the reality is that American high school students rank a miserably low 28th out of 40 countries tested by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD.1
Contrast this attitude with that of students in Hong Kong. Fifty-seven percent of them agreed with the statement “I am just not good at mathematics.” Where did they actually score? In first place, 27 places ahead of the American students. And while three-quarters of U.S. students said they received good grades in math, only one-fourth of Hong Kong students said the same.
What’s going on here? Today in America, children are encouraged, praised, coddled, and congratulated for every milestone, however miniscule. The last day of preschool used to be a day for taking the toddler’s last fingerpainting home; now it’s cause for a graduation ceremony, complete with cake, balloons, and certificates suitable for framing.
Grade school brings more graduation parties as each level is transcended; bumper stickers to affix to the family minivan, glorifying “My child is an honor student”; and enormous trophies for entering — not necessarily winning, but merely participating in — a chess tournament or a soccer league.
Schools spend millions to bolster...
