Reply To Narcissism

Narcissism
Article on the rise of Generation Me.
Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17349066/?GT1=9033
David, Tuesday, 2-27-07 12:56 PM
re: Narcissism
Ouch. I wish I could say that I am surprised, but honestly I think this just the logical end of where the public education system / mass media is leading us. I read some interesting articles (which of course I cannot now find) a few months back on how our current education system got headed this direction. Back in the early 60s some very specific experiments were done accross the nation in "at risk" school districts: several groups with three competing theories of education were basically allowed free reign. One group used a "top down" approach - they tried to teach kids how to think and reason without spending much time on core concepts themselves. Another group focused on rigorous training on core concepts - i.e. reading, writing, and arithmetic. (Officially this method is titled "Direct Instruction.) The third focused on self esteem - making the kids feel good about themselves, regardless of their performance.
Which of the three methods do you think actually improved at-risk student performance? And which method do you think became to "method du jour," regardless of the fact that performance on measurable skills actually dropped?
Yeah.

I think the core problem is that attempting to teach "self esteem" divorced from the *justification* for that self esteem - that is, one's identity as an eternal being created in the very image of God and deemed worthy by Him for salvation, but also (and this is key) fallen and *needful* of forgiveness and salvation - has essentially no choice but to dead end in narcicism. Human nature wants to go here anyway. There is little or no Darwinian justification for being civic minded, compassionate, or humble. Of course, when there is no foundation for ones self esteem, it is very fragile. It is a structure impossed from outside, and if that shell gets punctured, there's nothing to hold up what's inside. And this is what we also see in our society: high levels of depression, feelings of worthlessness, despair, and the like.


I think I'll homeschool. ;)
Annette, Wednesday, 2-28-07 10:24 AM
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