INFLATED SELF ESTEEM WILL END IN FAILURE

 INFLATED SELF ESTEEM WILL END IN FAILURE

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

 

Our culture in the United States is obsessed with high self-esteem equity. Everyone should feel positive about everything they do, in order to make as many individuals feel good about any amount of effort. According to this philosophy, everyone needs to receive an equal reward so no person will suffer the pain of being less than someone else. 

 

In our government schools many of the school boards are finding ways to minimize differences between student’s ranking in class. Some schools do not allow student grades to be written on the board. Spelling, math, or other bees of any kind are not allowed so no one will feel inferior. The top academic student in the class is not publicly announced since it might arouse envy in some and smugness in others. Due to the precipitous drop in the testing scores in the USA compared with other nations, some academic subjects have been deemphasized or eliminated altogether. For example, the writing section of the SAT exam has been eliminated while many colleges are not even requiring these standardized tests for entrance qualification.  

 

The concept of equity: that everyone should be raised to the same level regardless of whether they earned it or not, is being implemented in many of our government schools. This artificially creates a world that appears to be equal in all things and in all groups. This allows all individuals to appear to be equal in every way except it is not true since everyone is unique even so-called identical twins.

 

The USA Department of Education’s new objective as a social change agency has sacrificed its past merit-based mission. This change in focus is undermining the quality of our education. Instead of attempting to raise every racial and ethnic group in public school, it is lowering it for everyone. By changing the standard for each subgroup, an artificial equitable result may be achieved. This is being done to satisfy Marxist political concerns instead of increasing our students’ academic ability as compared to students worldwide.

 

There always have been people with inflated egos who think they are better than most others. These blowhards are increasing in number and are often hard to take seriously. The people exaggerate or directly lie about their accomplishments and life history.  It does not matter if their parents, friends, or other significant person was a role model for exaggerating, the individual had the choice of imitating this lifestyle or not. These people may make a wonderful first impression, but it does not mean their reputation will not change with more exposure. The label for a person living a fraudulent existence by taking liberties with the truth is a phony. 

 

Yet, the USA with their glorious past educational system chose to lower the academic educational standards to force equity mediocrity. These decisions are eroding the moral fabric of our nation. In the recent past students were judged on their ability. They had to learn and demonstrate their knowledge through vigorous testing. When students who excel were honored by other students and teachers who admired them as role models. Their 

excellence and advancement motivated everyone to compete at their optimal level. This is called the merit system.

 

Replacing merit with inflated grades results in the reduction of what must be learned to not overwhelm the student. These lower academic standards, along with less motivated and dedicated teachers is a formula for a third-world nation with diluted institutions, weakened morals and work ethic. People in the equity culture will expect more material wealth than they will receive as they lack the necessary skills and work ethic.  

 

Many of these students with inflated esteem believe they can do anything they are assigned. Since most have no knowledge of cursive writing, higher math, or history they will eventually be made aware that they cannot do the job in the real work world with their meager education.

 

In this reality the students will fail because their inflated grades led to insufficient learning and retaining academic skills and knowledge. The more students put into their education, the more they get out of it, which opens greater opportunities for future advancement.

 

The focus on getting all students to be at the same point in the same grade is hurting our nation’s ability to compete in the world. Some students are not allowed to advance while the poorer level students are pushed ahead to keep everyone at the same level. This political approach will end in harsh failure. Inflated egos are worthless when the person is unprepared for the reality of the judgmental and competitive economic society. 

 

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers and blogs, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and the latest book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.