Premium
Self‐Esteem: The Kindly Apocalypse
Author(s) -
Smith Richard
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9752.00261
Subject(s) - self esteem , devaluation , value (mathematics) , dishonesty , psychology , social psychology , sociology , epistemology , positive economics , philosophy , computer science , economics , linguistics , currency , machine learning
Self‐esteem has become an educational shibboleth. But over‐valuing it brings dangers, particularly of dishonesty, manipulation and devaluation of human relationships. Yet there is clearly something here we want to save: a gentler culture with wider possibilities of self‐fulfilment. Here I try to distinguish three levels of self‐esteem talk. There is the exaltation of self‐esteem as the chief aim of education, the therapeutic approach to education and the recognition of self‐esteem as one educational value among many. It is the latter, I argue, that can preserve the benefits of the idea of self‐esteem while avoiding the worst of its pitfalls.