People often talk about fixing problems in American education, but the problems I often hear talked about and the solutions offered are not the real problems and solutions.

A huge mistake in American education occurred early in the 20^th century. It was made by the most influential educator in American history, John Dewey. He believed students didn’t need to be “made to learn.” Rather, if set free to search in an environment of open inquiry, they would learn at greater speed as their interests motivated them. Dewey should have read Solomon: “The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother” (Proverbs 29:15).

Teachers bought into Dewey’s philosophy completely. I remember sitting in a meeting as a high school teacher, listening to another teacher tell us how to be better teachers. She asked the question, “What motivates students most to succeed in school?” From several options, most teachers in the room picked answers like, “sense of accomplishment,” “interest in subject matter,” or “future goals.” I think I was the only person in the room to pick the right answer (though I was too afraid to say it out loud and be labeled a cynic): “fear of failing grades.”

G. K. Chesterton understood how wrong Dewey was when he said something like, “Education is not a thing to be enjoyed but endured.” If we assume students want to learn the parts of speech and angles in an isosceles triangle, we are fooling ourselves. In short, one of the mistakes of American education is failing to recognize that children must often be “made” to learn.

Tied to the Dewey mistake is another born of 20th century psychology. It is the model of education as a builder of self-esteem, which results in producing mediocre students who are happy with being so wonderfully average. Much of psychology in the 20th century was about the importance of teaching people to value themselves, to see guilt as a harmful psychological state, and to build self-esteem. This became so important in education theory that school districts, teachers, and involved parents experimented with eliminating scores, promoting students whether they passed or failed, and eliminating competitive activities that left “losers” feeling bad about themselves.

Eliminating guilt has allowed kids to cheat in school, act like brats, and do so believing they haven’t done anything wrong. We have taught all children that they are “special,” forgetting what was acknowledged in the Disney cartoon, The Incredibles, where a savvy screenwriter pointed out what we have been afraid to say or fooled into forgetting: in a society where all people are special, there’s nothing special about anyone.

Self-esteem building is born of a desire to love; it shares a similar message to the Christian message of grace: God loves us and values us even when we don’t value ourselves. The world’s idea of self-esteem is built on two lies: that we are not guilty, and that we can only be loved if we are all the same. The Bible is clear in noting that the message of grace is so wonderful because we are guilty and deserving of Hell (Matthew 23:33). God does not value us because we are good. He makes us good because he values us. Christians know God values us because he sent Christ to die for us, even while we were still enemies of God (Romans 5:10).

The Bible is, furthermore, clear in saying that people are not equal. They are equally loved by God (John 3:16: “God so loved the world”), but not equal in talents or abilities. The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:15-30) makes this clear: some people have one talent, some two, and some five. It does not matter that we are not equal; what matters is what we do with the talents God gives us. Self-esteem building won’t stand for this kind of thinking because it elevates the psychological self as the most important thing there is. Humiliation must be avoided at all cost (even if it means keeping smarter students in regular classes instead of “gifted and talented” or “advanced placement” programs so the average kids don’t feel sorry for themselves). But this represents a failure to see the value of humility. In other words, self-esteem building is about filling people with a false sense of pride, and pride is a sin and harmful to education. “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom” (Proverbs 11:2).

Self-esteem building makes people proud of themselves for no good reason. Education ought to teach truth, but self-esteem building teaches the greatest lie of all: that I am all that matters regardless of what I do. The result is students who act like it, disrupting classrooms and lives while they happily fail to learn a thing. |L

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells