By: Emily Shwake

Many psychologists are finding discouraging results of the self-esteem movement that have ruled parenting and education since the 1980s. Roy Baumeister, a professor of psychology at Florida State University and originally an advocate of the self-esteem movement, determined in “one of the greatest disappointments of [his] career” that there is no link between academic success and high self-esteem. Others are finding that the outcome may be even worse than a failure to create successful students: the victims of the movement have shown a greater inclination to narcissism, an unquenchable desire for praise, and depression.

Kids expect to do well because they have been told that they are special. “In praise of the ordinary child,” an article that appears in TIME’s August 3, 2015 issue, reports that 70 percent of college-age students think that they are on the right side of the bell curve (a mathematical impossibility for all of them to be there, of course). When they fail, they call into question everything they know about themselves and the world.

In the study we have been addressing for the past two weeks, Motivation Matters: How New Research Can Help Teachers Boost Student Engagement, Susan Headden and Sarah McKay explore the abandonment of the self-esteem movement and a burgeoning embrace of character education to create emotional intelligence. Instead of avoiding criticizing kids and rewarding them every time they participate (like the kids of Steelers linebacker James Harrison), experts hope that by inspiring kids to be gritty and optimistic as these are the kids that perform the best in college.

The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence created the RULER (Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing and Regulating emotions and their consequences) approach to measure emotional growth. This helps kids figure out what they want and to discover their own limits and possibilities without being pushed into practicing for hours every night toward being the next concert pianist or curer of cancer.

Returning Rewards

A few days ago, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison returned his sons' participation trophies, stating:

"I came home to find out that my boys received two trophies for nothing, participation trophies! While I am very proud of my boys for everything they do and will encourage them till the day I die, these trophies will be given back until they EARN a real trophy. I'm sorry I'm not sorry for believing that everything in life should be earned and I'm not about to raise to boys to be men by making them believe that they are entitled to something just because they tried their best...cause sometimes your best is not enough, and that should drive you to want to do better...not cry and whine until somebody gives you something to shut u up and keep you happy. ?#?harrisonfamilyvalues?."

The Savvy Auntourage weighed in with whether they agreed or disagreed with him. AUNTIE UP and add your thoughts to the Facebook post below: