【单选题】

No one would argue that children thrive when they feel respected, important, and cared for by other persons, or that they falter when they lack the self-pride and self-confidence that accompanies such approval and support. However, at the hands of educators eager to encourage lagging pupils, a myth has developed that raising youngsters’ self-esteem is a sure means of improving their levels of achievement and solving many of the nation’s social ills.

A、1990 report, for instance, proposes that "self-esteem is the likeliest candidate for a ’social vaccine’, something that empowers us to live responsibly and that keeps us from the lure of crime, teen pregnancy, and educational failure. The lack of self-esteem is central to more personal and social ills plaguing our state and nation as we approach the end of the twentieth century."
By the 1960s, following the advent of the self-actualization theories of personal growth espoused by psychologistsAbraham Maslow andCarl Rogers, interest in enhancing self-esteem as a path to accomplishment got under way in the nation’s schools. Since then, dozens of "how-to" books have described ways for improving children’s positive feeling about themselves. The theory is simple: Feeling good is a necessary predecessor of accomplishment.
Despite its current popularity, questions can be raised about the assumptions underlying the self-esteem movement. For example, what benefit does a third-grader gain in telling herself, "I am smart," "I am a good student,"—all forms of the "affirmative language" advocated byDouglasBloch in his book Positive Self-talk forChildren
Does it really enhance the self-esteem of members of the fifth-grade baseball team—or improve their athletic skill—when everyone is awarded a trophy, despite the fact that the team did not show noticeable improvement throughout the season What effect will this have on next year’s efforts when this record of performance ends with apparent approval and satisfactionCountless statistics and surveys have had a unanimous(一致的) result: nothing is changed, and the days go on the same as ever.
People are eager to praise the toddler for a few tentative steps and the two-year-old for simply attempting to match form with hole in a puzzle boarD、 Self-esteem is heightened in the young child through such love and approval. Older kids, though, are foxy analysts and know when performance merits praise and when it does not. Repeating indiscriminate praise or acclaiming minimal accomplishments run the risk of transforming positive response into meaningless flattery(恭维).
Self-esteem theorists appear to have it backwards. Meaningful self-evaluation and positive self-esteem usually are the results, not the prerequisites(前提), of accomplishment. Praise is just one source of feedback; self-esteem more often comes from an awareness that the requirements of a sought-after goal have been mastereD、Acquiring the knowledge and skills that enable a child to make progress toward such goals is a necessary basis for developing healthy, realistic self-esteem.
Sports are an arena in whichAmericans generally have little reluctance to require hard work and persistence.Coaches do not hesitate to point out errors and mistakes.Children’s self-esteem does not appear to suffer when they are told that they need to practice more and concentrate on the task at hanD、The usual effect is renewed effort to work, practice, and learn.
In contrast,Americans are reluctant to have teachers evaluate the academic performance of their elementary school children with more than a "satisfactory" or "needs improvement." Later, parents urge high schools to adopt more lenient(宽松的)grading systems, worried that the children’s self-esteem will plummet when they find that the "satisfactory" of earlier years now has become a "C’ or "D、"
Sympathetic teachers, aware of the difficulties students encounter in their everyday lives, often re