American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
We've all heard, probably, about the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which is:
is a cognitive bias in which an unskilled person makes poor decisions and reaches erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to realize their mistakes. The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average, much higher than it actually is...
In yesterday's Chicago Tribune, an interesting article about the self-esteem movement, and what it's done to a generation of American children:
...today's young people have been praised so much that some flail at their first taste of criticism or failure. Others develop a keen sense of privilege, believing they'll coast into a golden future regardless of their actual talents, accomplishments or willingness to work...
...a recent study that found twice as many high school seniors in 2006 reported earning an A average as seniors in 1976. At the same time, fewer students said they did 15 or more hours of homework each week — meaning teens are getting better grades with less work...
..."It's this entitlement that is driving many of us crazy. It's like, where did we go wrong?" said Rita Berger, a West Chicago mother of a teenage son and daughter. "We're kind of the root problem. In our attempt to give (this generation) everything, they have not learned to work or appreciate things"....
What do you know? Not much. How do you feel about it? Pretty good, actually.
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Jun '10
Re: American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
I could fill a book of anecdotal stories to illustrate this problem, but I'll add just one point instead. You've probably heard of the GED, also known as a high school equivalency diploma. It's a way for kids to scam the system by testing out of high school without acquiring the basic content knowledge. In my day we called them drop-outs, but today they think themselves educated because they passed a test geared to about a 9th grade level. Low achievement and high self-esteem is a bad combination. Just ask anyone who works in the west wing.
Jun '10
Re: American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
...or anyone who works in Corrections.
Re: American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
When I played Little League in the 1970's only the top three teams won a troply, and they were sized with first place being the largest. The rest of the teams received nothing. So we had incentive to win.
Today I coach Little League. Every player gets a trophy.
Little League trophies are about as important today as the Nobel Peace Prize - you get it not for accomplishment, but just for playing.
May '10
Re: American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
Po Bronson wrote a characteristically illuminating article in New York magazine a few years ago, and it's relevant to this topic. Titled "How Not to Talk to Your Kids," here are two paragraphs from its late-middle:
"New York University professor of psychiatry Judith Brook explains that the issue for parents is one of credibility. 'Praise is important, but not vacuous praise,' she says. 'It has to be based on a real thing—some skill or talent they have.' Once children hear praise they interpret as meritless, they discount not just the insincere praise, but sincere praise as well.
Scholars from Reed College and Stanford reviewed over 150 praise studies. Their meta-analysis determined that praised students become risk-averse and lack perceived autonomy. The scholars found consistent correlations between a liberal use of praise and students’ 'shorter task persistence, more eye-checking with the teacher, and inflected speech such that answers have the intonation of questions.'"
Jun '10
Re: American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
How about this insight from the always great Anthony Daniels (who previously wrote psedonymously as Theodore Dalrymple before he retired--he was an English doctor ) from a 2009 article in The New Criterion addressing the danger of relativism. What follows is the fourth reason he gives for the rise of relativism:
“Fourth is the inexorable rise of self-importance and self-esteem, that psychological Congressional Medal of Honor, Order of Merit, and Grand-croix de la Legion d’Honneur which is awarded automatically to everyone for the heroic feat of drawing breath: a rise that is itself consequent upon the extension of the right to the pursuit of happiness to success in the pursuit.” [Anthony Daniels, “Guarding the Boundaries,” The New Criterion, January 2009, 12-13]
Re: American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
I love that quote -- thanks, Ted. And yes, Justified, I've been to some of those games -- I was even shushed rather loudly for inadvertently cheering a player to keep running and take third base. "No specific cheering," was told by a couple of panicked dads.
The kids who aren't totally coddled and suffocated by all of this, in my limited experience, turn out totally cynical and dismissive of everything. Which is exactly, oddly, what happened behind the old Iron Curtain: those who knew the State was full of it became bitter and bleak and apathetic; those who didn't know that the State was full of it ended up finding out anyway.
Jul '10
Re: American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
I believe the harm of constant praise is magnified by the Heliocopter Parents who run the lives of the over praised children. I suppose the HPs are another string, but the children, some in their late 20's and 30's that I deal with are unable to admit they could have been wrong about anything. Anyone who tells me they have never made a mistake is actually telling me they never paid attention to the consequences of their mistakes, some of them have left a trail of squandered opportunities behind themselves. Verifying their work histories with their former employers would me amusing if they weren't trying to bring that lifestyle of shirking into my office.
Jul '10
Re: American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
Here's a reminder from Winston Churchill of what kids went through in his time:
“My first school was St. George’s in Ascot. I was a month short of my eighth birthday when I entered. The headmaster was the Rev. H. W. Sneyd-Knynnersley. He was a tall, thin man who was something of a dandy. He wore the black cloth of a clergyman but eschewed the clerical collar. Mr. Sneyd-Kynnersley explained to us the first morning of the term that he reserved to himself the right to give us a sound flogging with the birch rod when warranted. It took only two or three strokes for drops of blood to form everywhere and it continued for fifteen or twenty strokes when the wretched boy’s bottom was a mass of blood. There was a wild, red-haired Irish boy, himself rather a cruel brute who tortured weaker, smaller boys, who whether deliberately or as a result of the pain or whether he had diarrhea, let fly. Instead of stopping at once, Sneyd-Kynnersley went on with increased fury until the whole ceiling and walls of his study were spattered with filth.
Re: American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
Extremely well-put. Ricochet Line of the Day:
And You Grace, what can I say but that against such a childhood experience, Hitler never had a chance.
Jun '10
Re: American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
I had one of my drop-outs visit campus last year. He was all puffed up about having passed his GED test. I asked him what he planned to do next. He informed me that he wanted to move to Hawaii to become a beach bum. I said, "hey, you're halfway there, all you need now is a beach." The idiot grinned and nodded his head vigorously.
Jun '10
Re: American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
Is it possible to be happy leading an unexceptional life? The answer, of course, is yes. Or should I written the curse, of course, is yes? It is a curse because we all must in some way lead exceptional lives, for it is the exceptional among us that do more than draw the water and hew the wood. Yet, in all of the history of the English language we have produced only one Shakespeare, in all the history of Physics only one Einstein. Such a list could drag on, but you get the point. So where are writers who are not Shakespeare or Physicists who are not Einstein supposed to find their happiness. The answer should be in personal satisfaction, which in this day and age seems impossible to find unless someone somewhere, other than the author of the piece that is, applauds. Unfortunately, this is the very essence of bad politics, which is to say in a round about way that public approval trumps personal satisfaction when it should be the other way around.
Jul '10
Re: American Kids: Stupider and Lazier, But At Least They Feel Good About It
Laziness or cynicism. Life isn't fair. My experience is that hard work will definitely not guarantee success, and may not even make it much more likely if the cards are dealt a certain way. Prove me wrong. I say: if you think otherwise, you are lucky, and yourself a shining example of the D-K effect. But once you understand that your mind is truly on its way to being free. Now where is that beach? Mine is probably on the other coast, at NAS North Island. Very family friendly.