Today I went through my nine-year-old daughter's backpack and found an award certificate "for achievement in the recorder." Something about having gotten to "orange level," whatever that is. My daughter can no more play the recorder than she can play the flugelhorn. What the---? I thought. And then I thought about the awards assembly I went to yesterday at her school. It was interminable. If there was any kid there who did not get an award for something, it had to be because he or she did not have a pulse.
Now, my daughter got on the honor roll, and I am really proud of her for that. She's struggled with math, so to bring her grades up to all A's and B's is a real achievement. But this goopy talk from educators about how "awesome" and how "special" all these kids were kinda made me queasy. When the principal told the student in syrupy tones that "we will never ever ever forget you," I thought, Puh-leeze. At the very least, we are raising a generation of kids who have no bullshit meters if they believe every word like that they hear. At worst, we're raising kids who are going to needs all kinds of strokes just to show up for work every day.
Schools have got it backward. Self-esteem doesn't produce achievement; hard-won achievement produces self esteem.