The feel-good curriculum : the dumbing-down of America's kids in the name of self-esteem / Maureen Stout.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stout, Maureen.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

School children--United States--Psychology.

School children.

Self-esteem in children.

Curriculum planning.

Psychology.

United States.

Physical Description:

xiii, 313 pages ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Dumbing-down of America's kids in the name of self-esteem

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Perseus Books, [2000]

Summary:

The so-called "self-esteem movement" -- a progressive, child-centered, discovery model of schooling -- has transformed schools into therapeutic clinics and teachers into counselors, creating a generation of righteous, entitled, 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 clear 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.

Contents:

Introduction: The False Prophet of Self-Esteem 1

Part I Creating a Culture of Therapy: How We Got Here from There

1 What Is School For, Anyway? 11

2 Inside the Ed School: The Politics of Teacher Education 45

3 What's So Progressive About This? Child-Centered Education and the Transformation of the American Public School 75

Part II Therapy Nation: Culture and Schooling in Contemporary America

4 The Rake's Progress: Self-Esteem Takes Over 99

5 Nothing More than Feelings: The Naked Truth About Self-Esteem 119

6 Practicing Self-Esteem: Magic, Myths, and Masquerades 141

Part III Fighting Back: Challenging the Consequences of Self-Esteem

7 Too Many Degrees of Separation: Self-Esteem and the Death of Community 175

8 The Return of Ethics in Education: Answering Emotivism 207

9 Back to the Future: From Cynicism to Skepticism and Hope 241

Epilogue: Education for a New Millennium 277.

ISBN:

0738202576

OCLC:

43398620