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By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster
In the 1970's, Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral wrote a national best-seller called Self-Esteem: The New Reformation. In it, he made the rather audacious claim that the recovery of self-esteem would transform the church for the 21st Century, just as the Reformation led by Martin Luther had transformed the church in the 16th Century. Self-Esteem became the cultural rage of the Me Generation in the 1980's and 1990's. Saturday Night Live made fun of this obsession with their character Stuart Smalley, portrayed by now-Senator Al Franken from Minnesota, who would look in the mirror and affirm himself with the words: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and, Gosh-Darn-it, people like me."
Self-esteem is a tricky thing. Studies in the 70's had shown that students who performed poorly in school usually had very low self-esteem, while high-achieving students had high self-esteem. Schools responded by developing self-esteem programs. Oddly, other studies since have shown that one population group has exceptionally high self-esteem: death row inmates. It seems they all valued their own worth much more than that of their victims. Today, American students have nearly the highest self-esteem of any group of students in the world, even though they perform well below most industrialized nations on standardized testing.
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