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The Feel-good Curriculum: The Dumbing Down Of America's Kids In The Name Of Self-esteem

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Maureen Stout's book, The Feelgood Curriculum: Dumbing Down of America's Kids in the Name of Self-Esteem will amuse and bemuse readers alike, whether or not they are connected with the educational community. Stout makes several valid points in support of her argument(backed by research) that self-esteem promotion for the sake of stroking egos and making people feel better about themselves is not only futile, but also counterproductive. She follows several studies of self-esteem and their inability to produce meaningful results in support of self-esteem curricula, but indicate that self-esteem curricula encourages narcissism and entitlement. On the surface, her text appears very cynical and a harbinger of doom and gloom, however in the last 1/4 of the book she identifies possible solutions. Her remedies, however fall short as she appears to have put forth more effort in her research and discussion of shortcomings.

Readers may identify themselves, classmates or their children as they read accounts of people Stout has encountered, sensing an entitlement to better grades, educational opportunites and accolades which they have not won.

If you are interested in how the self-esteem movement has insinuated itself into the public school system, this is the book for you. Unlike other books about education, this one is thoroughly engaging, well-written, and even amusing.

Particularly interesting, is the chapter on teacher training. Having survived the ordeal myself, it was truly a relief to read that I was not alone in being appalled by the relentless focus on self-esteem, making sure the kids are "having fun", and the importance of not behaving in a "teacherly" fashion; after all, we are there to "facillitate learning", not stand infront of the class and actually say something.
The silent majority of parents, who are outraged by the wholesale rejection of traditional education, needs to stand up and make their objections known.
The classroom has become a gong show.

Does success follow as a natural result of feeling self-esteem (what Stout defines as "feeling good for no good reason"), or does self-esteem come from challenge, hard work, and success? Anyone who has been in a classroom recently (on either side of the desk) will recognize the author's description of what passes for education these days. While she puts too much faith in the idea that school ought to transmit traditional values (which sounds like code for blind religiosity and blind patriotism), Stout's argument is compelling: Americans have allowed the difficult work of learning to be replaced by such feel-good options as "cooperative learning" and "child-centered classrooms," theories that place a premium on the self-esteem of students and avoid anything (competition, grading--especially failing grades, authority itself) that may lead anyone to think that some ideas are better than others, that some people are more sooner capable than others, or that judgment of any kind about anything may actually be OK. No knee-jerk reactionary, Stout acknowledges the gains that our educational establishment has made as a result of many progressive ideas; for example, it has been no great loss that schools are no longer organized as in the 19th C., when students never spoke unless spoken to and literally had to "toe the line" drawn on the floor when they stood to answer questions, but she rightly worries that the current emphasis on how students "feel" about learning makes it difficult for real learning to take place.

This book is ABSOLUTELY accurate when it comes to how the self-esteem movement has turned our schools away from academics and the gathering of knowledge. Instead, what we now have in place of safe, well organized places where knowledge can be taught, are amateur therapy clinics.

I got into the teaching game late in life, in my late 30's. I liked kids (still do; most of them anyway) and realized that it was through the efforts of a few good teachers that had taught me that I knew anything academic outside of the blue-collar world in which I was raised. My father had to leave school while in 8th grade in order to go to work, my mother was a (reluctant) high school graduate, and they both , especially my father, constantly stressed the importance of education to me as I grew up.

In school, I started out as a promising student, only to end up a goof; the kind of kid I see a lot of; able, but largely unmotivated. Therefore, I have large gaps in various areas of knowledge, which, to this day, I am trying to fill.

At any rate, when I decided to go back to get my teacher certification in reading, which is not one of the areas I am weak in, I was amazed at some of the utter nonsense being taught by my college professors that I was expected to believe. I already had a BBA in business administration, and had substituted for several years from K-12, but to hear so called "experts" saying that to grade papers using red ink could be harmful to a child's psyche, that female teachers should never wear open toed shoes because of a phenomena called "toe cleavage," that turned on adolescent boys, that tests shouldn't be difficult because every child DESERVES to be successful regardless whether they have done anything to achieve said success or not, etc., was almost too much to absorb! There were times I had to almost pinch myself in order to realize that these things were really being said, and were meant to be taken seriously!

I have spent years trying to teach kids things that, I know from experience, they will be expected to know in order to be considered literate adults; fighting every single day against the "I am entitled to a good grade because I am ME" attitudes the self esteem movement has created, but I am afraid that it is a losing battle, because the self esteem movement has become the ESTABLISHED way of teaching (and indeed THINKING) the past 30-40 years. Teachers like myself are considered "troublemakers" when all we are trying to do is the job of educating our kids so that they can compete in the real world with kids that ARE literate, and that DON'T think that they are ENTITLED to make a living regardless of whether they can do the job or NOT! This book lays it all out and tells it like it really is; and it is NOT a pretty picture.

I am a college student and a mother, and I planned on using a particular section out of this book for a research paper I was doing on young girls and self-esteem. I started reading it and could not put it down. This book had so many brilliant points, I found myself cheering on Dr.Stout at every turn of the page.
I am always reading different parenting books (along with all my school textbooks!) and I found this to be so enlightening on how to view the education my kids are receiving. Our kids are capable of so much more than we ever give them credit for (or at least the schools ever give them credit for) and we need to set a higher standard. Thanks Dr.Stout for an incredible book!

When how I feel about my accomplishment overshadows the reality of that which is accomplished, we are in trouble as a society. Such it is with education. We have ceased to teach for knowledge and are more concerned about the "feel-good fuzzies". America is rapidly falling behind and more money is not the answer but joins the "self-esteem" group as a part of the problem. This book will make one very uncomfortable and even angry if you believe that what we are teaching our kids is "world class".

This book was first published in 2000 (hardcover). And you would think by now that Dr. Stout's inside report on the danger of the self-esteem curriculum would have resulted in drastic improvements in public education in America. Unfortunately, that has not happened. Just before I wrote this review (June '06) I searched the Internet for "self-esteem curriculum" and received 6,320,000 hits. Clearly, the problem remains.

Writing with candor, compassion, wit, and a slight liberal slant - I would disagree with her views on national healthcare, the Second Amendment, and her citing the Matthew Shepard murder as an example of a homophobic hate crime (which we now know was not the case) - Dr. Stout is, on the whole, fair in her presentation. She provides a rare glimpse into the mysterious world of teacher education. And what she reveals is a world of professionals so wrapped up in their own ideas and theories that they are unable (unwilling?) to recognise the devastation being wrought on the nation and its children.

School as therapy centre has produced (and continues to produce) literally thousands of young Americans who are pathologically self-centred, hedonistic, anti-intellectual, unable to cope with the demands of life in the real world, and unwilling to accept the responsibilities that come with living in a democratic society. And as a result that society is at increasing risk of disintegration as these individuals enter adulthood and assume positions in education, business, and government.

My main criticism of Dr. Stout is her failure to recognise that morality and virtue (which she strongly supports) must have a more substantial foundation (i.e., God) than merely the collective agreement of society. After all, the 1960s saw a generation of college students openly rebel against society and its mores and morals in large part because they saw no basis greater than society, no absolute foundation, upon which those mores and morals rested.

In conclusion, the problems Professor Stout identifies have only grown in the six years since her book was published as has the need for parents and other concerned citizens to pay heed and take action before this nation degenerates into anarchy, barbarism, or, in response to those, totalitarianism. This is a book all Americans should read because the problems identified therein are a clear and present danger to the nation, perhaps the greatest danger we are currently facing. We ignore them at our own peril.

As an educator working toward an advanced degree, I chose this book for a class project and found the content interesting, but not anything I haven't yelled about for years. Kids do come to class thinking they don't have to work for their grades, and that's been the case in our district with rampant social promotions. The attitude of student and, in some cases, family entitlement (If you've ever lived in a small town and had to deal with descendants of early settlers of a town, you understand what I mean there!) is unbelievable.

The author points to a long-running progression of loony theories of education, each more permissive and outrageous than the last, that leave Johnny and Susie feeling like they're at the top of the food chain when they can't read and write and perform basic mathematical computations upon high school graduation. In the end, Maureen Stout does offer suggestions on turning the bus around, so to speak, and getting the focus of education back on EDUCATION where it should be. Unfortunately, it's going to be a long, difficult struggle with so many parents, students, and educators buying into the "child centered" feel-good classroom where grades and tests are the enemy because they make Johnny feel bad about himself. Definitely written with a conservative slant.

Maureen Stout's book, "The Feel-Good Curriculum," would make a good companion to the works of ED Hirsch, author of "The Knowledge Deficit." These two authors' theses are much the same: over the past forty-or-so years, the "progressive" changes in American education have led to the decline of academic standards, the over-valuing of (a misguided view of) self-esteem, and and the turning out of students ill-prepared for the disciplined nature of the "real world."

Stout is a professor of education at UC Berkley, and like her philosophical kin Hirsch, is interested not only in demonstrating these saddening trends but in exploring their ideational roots. While the usual suspects (Dewey, Thorndike), she also links non-educators like psychologist Carl Rogers and Erik Ericksson with the "child-centered," whole child," and "self-actualization" movements in education.

These movements changed virtually everything about schooling. Instead of teaching students basic academics, their primary goals were not wo help the child reach self-actualizaiton (whatever THAT means!). Instead of seeing discipline as necessary for an ordered school, it was now seen as an antiquated stifler of student enthusiasm.

...And, as Stout points out, the movement kept on going, becoming more and more extreme despite yielding worse and worse reults. As an educator, I found myself oscillating between chuckling and containing anger as I read about current trends in educaiton - Vygotskyan cooperative learning, social (rather than standards-based) promotion, educators as facilitators rather than instructors - that I sadly recognize all too well. And as an educator, I can attest that these are trends that need to be rethought and revamped, but never seem to be; Stout hits these problems right on the head in writing about these problems, not only identifying THAT, but WHY, they are problems.

Stout ends with a section on how we can turn some of these effects around (and her suggestions sound much like those of ED Hirsch). She does not advocate a return to the dark ages where students memorize rote passages and are paddled for misbehavior. She advocates a return to standards-based, rather than "outcome-based" educaiton, readjust our views on the value of discipine, and maybe get rid of the "progressive" idea of self-esteem that equates it with "feeling good for no good reason" rather than an earned feeling of accomplishment.

This is a very, very good book. Those who read it will either be challenged to re-examine cherished views or be further outraged by problems they know too well. Either way, it is not a book to be missed.

The title says it all, but most Americans refuse to believe it. Feelings are what's important, not facts. Self-esteem, that's the objective, not achievement. Kids can't read or write, but they feel really good about being stupid! What a joke!!! The next time the sales clerk can't give you correct change, try to convince yourself it's okay because he has such a high opinion of himself, he'll make a wonderful contribution to society some day. He will. Honestly. But society will have changed a bit by then. Thanks to public schools, more and more Americans are becoming functionally illiterate while at the same time their self-esteem assures them everything's just fine. Their chests may be pumped up with a phony sense of pride, but their heads will be empty. But that's the way somebody wants it. George Orwell had a name for these empty-headed, blissfully ignorant citizens. He called them "proles." Think about it. Maureen's book deals primarily with education and public policy. Other books on these topics include None Dare Call It Education, The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, Legally STUPiD: Why Johnny doesn't have to read, Public Schools Against America: The Hidden Agenda and The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America.