Tracy Rehberg

Another Reason to Celebrate
Congratulations! You are Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. That’s right. You. Not you and you alone exactly. Rather, you and me and everybody else. It’s somewhat of a letdown. In part because I know a lot of people who really don’t deserve it – like me, for instance, and my condescending ex-neighbors, and all those unyielding telemarketers. And, in part, because I’m weary of the self-esteem movement. As beautifully misguided and ineffective as it may be, I don’t care to see it seeping from the curriculum of our schools into feel-good news for grown-ups.

After I read the full article, I realized Time’s objective wasn’t to pat all persons on the back just for being the best, but to commend us for our control of the information age. It seems you and I and millions of other people spoke our minds on the World Wide Web and, because we did, the sum of our otherwise meaningless thoughts truly mattered in 2006. Thanks to Internet blogs and virtual community Web sites such as MySpace.com and streaming video dispensers such as YouTube.com , humans can broadcast their stupidity and activism to the world from the comfort of their couches.

“You can learn more about how Americans live just by looking at the backgrounds of YouTube videos – those rumpled bedrooms and toy-strewn basement rec rooms – than you could from 1,000 hours of network television,” Time reported. God help us.

If you’re not feeling ultra-appreciated, you’re not alone. I don’t spend my days blogging or carving out my corner of MySpace either. In fact, I don’t know anyone who does. Apparently “You” does. And, lots of them. According to YouTube.com it “serves” 100 million videos and receives 65,000 uploads each day. Blogs (an individual’s virtual soapbox on the Web) receive about 900,000 postings each day.

Time labels this new social center and its user-generated content a “digital democracy.” To me, it seems like a world within a world. In it there are millions of people who have time to blog a nation. Outside it there are millions of people who have better things to do. Bloggers call the modern Web “a massive social experiment”… “an organism”… “a system without an owner.” It sounds like the makings of a science-fiction film.

Time has been criticized for its references to the Internet as a democracy, which is, as one blogger pointed out, “a very U.S.-centric way of viewing the Web.” Democracy or not, the new social Web is about as ego-centric as it gets. It’s a domestic product we can be proud of. After all, the egomania displayed by our citizens who sit and blog all day to ensure we have constant access to their opinions could only be learned in the USA.

Dr. Roy Baumeister, a Florida State University psychology professor, framed his research that debunked American schools’ advocacy of self-esteem with this question: If everybody was 50 percent more conceited, would the world be a better place? The answer is no. There’s almost no research to support the notion that the fostering of self-esteem in our schools leads to success. While self-esteem may be a measure of arrogance, it has never been a benchmark for success in school or life.

Research has proven that both academic-based and behavior-based learning models yield much better results than self-esteem-based theory. Still, our schools continue to promote this quackery with the belief that feeling good about one’s self enables achievement. Other higher performing countries feel the converse is true – that self-congratulation only comes after academic achievement is earned.

Several studies compare student skills in the U.S. to other predominant countries. Asian students tend to rank highest in math and U.S. students lowest. But, when students are asked to rate their perception of their ability to do math, U.S. students think they’re best – evidence that we’ve actually taught American students to lose their grip on reality.

We shuttle our children to activities that dispense trophies for participation and ribbons for eleventh place. Public schools practice overt self-esteem models. Don’t play the game of tag because someone will have to be “it.” Don’t use red ink to grade papers because it is deflating. Or, in the case of my children’s school, don’t grade homework or correct spelling at all. Just smile and encourage. My friend’s high school sent students on a field trip to celebrate their academic achievement – students could attend if they had As, Bs … or Cs. Meanwhile, U.S. test scores continue to decline.

Richard Weissbourd, a faculty member of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, claimed that schools ridden in self-esteem curriculum are “producing a generation of poorly educated adults who will lack the hard work and perseverance that have historically been necessary to achieving true success.”

Other university graduate professors are reporting brutal experiences for students who face the rejection of bad grades for the first time. U.S. employers struggle with what to do with the crop of young professionals who feel they’re entitled to everything and that nothing is fair.

I’m not certain America is collectively worthy of its “Person of the Year” honors. Perhaps the most pivotal person of 2006 should have been one who took a failing school and made its performance exceptional. Or someone who grew up under a warm blanket of reality – who knows the meaning of responsibility, accountability and hard work – like a cattleman. We’re most fortunate to be the recipients of this rearing.