Analyzing an Argumentative Essay: “Grades and Self- Esteem”
What is self- esteem? Self- esteem is confidence in one’s own worth or abilities. In “Grades & Self- Esteem”, author Randy Moore (2007) stated that the level of performance of the students decreased while schools are building the self- esteem in the students. Author Alfie Kohn (1994) stated in his article “The Truth about Self- Esteem” to contradict Moore’s opinion that academics and self- esteem are not related. Moore discussed some beneficial points which are useful for the students, but in some cases his argument was not giving better meaning. I agree from Moore’s article that the American students do not perform as well academically as students from other countries. I do not agree from Moore’s opinion that the emphasis on self- esteem is responsible for the poor performance. Where as the student’s level of self- esteem may not determine his or her future, good self- esteem can motivate the student to study hard and reach his or her academic potential.
Randy Moore (2007) stated that people are complaining that students are not good in academic performance: “Only 11% of eight- graders in California’s public schools can solve seventh – grade math problems” (p. 118). Kie Ho (2007) gave an example of complaints by the immigrant that German said on his son’s first day as a freshman, his school included multiplication and division on his mathematics test (p. 112). Moore (2007) stated that, due to too many mistakes by U. S workers, the tasks are moved to other countries. In my opinion, the reason for outsourcing the work is that in other countries the labor cost is cheaper compared to America and also America has good economy, so Moore‘s opinion was not acceptable.
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...nce. High self- esteem could lead to over- confidence which engage the students in doing wrong activities. Low self- esteem could lead to depressions, which allow the students to attempt suicide. Both high and low self- esteem causes the students in different ways.
References
Ho, K. (2007). We should cherish our children’s freedom to think. In R. Spack (Ed.), Guidelines: A cross-cultural reading/writing text (pp. 112-114). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Kohn, A. (1994). The truth about self- esteem Phi Delta Kappan, 76(4), 272-283.
Kohn, A. (2002). The dangerous myth of grade inflation The Chronical of Higher Education, 49(11), p. B7.
Moore, R. (2007). Grades and self-esteem. In R. Spack (Ed.), Guidelines: A cross-cultural reading/writing text (pp. 125-126). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Self-esteem involves evaluations of self-worth. People with high self-esteem tend to think well of others and expect to be accepted them.
The question of whether self- esteem has significance with real world- consequences is a valid concern. Ulrich Orth and Richard W. Robins provide the answer, with evidence contributed by researched studies, in their article The Development of Self- Esteem that self- esteem, in fact, does influence societal significance. With the determination on self- esteem trajectory from adolescence to old age, self- esteem stability, and the relationship between levels of self-esteem and predictions of success and failure, one can conclude that self- esteem influences life outcomes; moreover, people can participate to involvements focused at positively influencing the development of self- esteem.
Another reason why the assignment of failing grades has decreased is the influence of the self-esteem movement, which promotes the assumption that children who do not have a positive self-image cannot learn or develop properly. Although this theory is widely accepted, it has been discredited by several studies. Recent research shows that, although American students felt more confident about themselves and their work, they were outperformed by several Asian countries on tests of elementary skills. American schools and teachers tend to worry more about the student’s self-esteem than the actual academic performance (Leo, “Damn” 21). Mary Sherry, a teacher of adult literacy programs, does not believe such theories. Her view is that students become motivated by the threat of failure, and that not failing a student not only shows lack of confidence on the teacher’s behalf, but also hurts the society as a whole. Employees are becoming highly disappointed with so-called “graduate” students (8).
Self-Esteem. Self-esteem is the way individual perceives, symbolized and accept ourselves as worth beings in this world (Oregon Resiliency Project, 2003). Everyone must have the self-esteem in order to perform in the daily routine but the differences are the level of self-esteem inside individuals. The level of self-esteem will reflect how individual performs in a daily task and life. Self-esteem is popular among the psychology field of research and still being study by many researchers. Throughout of human life span, highs self-esteem promotes the development of human potential entirely (Habibollah et al., 2009).
Self-esteem is commonly defined as “a confidence in one's own worth or abilities.” It’s typically known as a personality trait, so everyone’s idea of “self-esteem” is completely different. Your self-esteem affects how you talk, act, and even think. Do you feel like you’re successful? Are you happy with your appearance? How do you feel about your social status? These are all questions that can help determine whether you have low self-esteem or high self-esteem.
When students arrive at university, professors expect them to understand the material to an exceptional standard. The problem is that grade inflation is occurring more regularly in secondary schools and universities across the country and when these students’ marks are sent to universities or colleges, the student may be given multiple scholarships for something that he/she should not have earned. Grade inflation is conceived between both students and teachers, meaning that the students are given higher grades when they have inadequate learning, reading, and verbal skills, while the teachers do not have to grade as many papers as they should in the real curriculum. There have been multiple examinations that have confirmed that grade inflation is very real and still occurs today. Students seem to think that they do not need to put forth much effort in school to do well and grade inflation encourages this thought.
In 1960 to 2014 the average GPA of students raised from a 2.4 to 3.0. This change is known as grade inflation, the idea that grades continue to rise from where they have been in the past without evidence of increased intelligence. Inflation is a word that is typically followed by a negative statement. With these two words together we can see how this could be viewed negatively. However, most of today’s society is oblivious to how relevant grade inflation is in our society. Students have become accustom to the idea that a B is an average grade. Yet, in the past this was considered a good grade while a C was considered average. This inflation has led to students becoming dissatisfied with receiving a B or C in a course, which has only furthered the development of grade inflation. These high expectations of students eventually spread to the professors and university causing a very negative impact. Grade inflation will eventually destroy the value of a higher education degree without some adjustments and is a serious concern to universities, students, and professors. (Rojstaczer)
Piatak, Tom. "Outsourcing Threatens American Workers." Opposing Viewpoints: Globalization. Ed. Louise I. Gerdes. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Lynbrook High School. 6 Dec. 2009
After reviewing both studies it can be concluded that an individual’s self-esteem changes based on their relationship status, ethnicity, personality characteristics and a possible effect on gender. Individuals that have high self-esteem are usually individuals that are outgoing, energetic and easy going. Those individuals have a lot of friends and are sociable. Adolescence self –esteem can be based on how popular they are in school those adolescences that are popular will have a higher self-esteem opposed to the adolescence that are more reserved, and that do not have many friends. Individual’s self- esteem can change during their twenties and sometimes into their thirties and beyond.
Self-esteem includes confidence, achievement, respect of others, and a need to be a unique individual. Being confident looks good on everyone, though some are more confident than others it still is needed to better yourself. Someone that gives there all nonstop and always does there best and never tries to take short cuts are the ones that everyone envies in school. They are the ones that get praised by all the teachers and they get awarded for doing their best. This can be both good and bad, good because then it shows the student that they are doing good and it makes themselves feel a lot better and it gives them confidence. Bad though because then it makes the other students feel bad about them and that causes their self-esteem to drop. Getting respect by a teacher and giving it is important to maintain a great classroom environment. If both parties are getting the respect needed, then everything works out in perfect harmony and the student can continue to work hard and the teacher can continue to help the student work
Stuart Rojstazer, a former professor at the University of Duke recently conducted a study that stated out of two hundred colleges and universities forty percent of all grades given fell in the “A” range. (Rojstazer, Healy). An A has become the average grade students receive in college, due to various factors. Grade inflation is a much greater problem than many Americans believe it is. Greater attention needs to be brought to this issue in order for something to be done about it. It appears that schools are not as concerned as they should be about grade inflation. Only a few schools across the country have attempted to fix grade inflation. So far, not one solution has been successful. If schools across America would join forces and ideas to end grade inflation it
Clifford H. Edwards, “Grade Inflation: The effect on educational quality and personal well being”, Education, Spring 2000, v120, i3, p538
Self-esteem is very important, that is why people developed it into a field of study and have carried out series of research on it. It allows people to face life with more confidence, benevolence and optimism making it easy for them to reach their goals. With self-esteem people can easily convince themselves that they deserve happiness. It allows you to face life with confidence, kindness and cheerfulness which in turn makes accomplishing your goals and vision in life very easy.
Education became one of the most controversial topics, nowadays, because of it is importance. People around the world are debating on the best way to teach students. Some of them say that student should be memorizing every line of every book, while others argues that students should be given some basic information. After that they should be taught how to think freely, and come up with their own ideas. The two writers Sydney J. Harris and Kie Ho discussed this topics sharing the same opinion in “What True Education Should Do,” and “We Should Cherish Our Children’s Freedom to Think.” They believe that students should have the ability to be creative, and should be given enough space to think and share their ideas.
Self-esteem is the amount of worth one has for oneself, so it could possibly affect a student’s academic success if that student lacks confidence in his or her own abilities. How can academic success be measured? An accurate representation of a student’s academic success is the student’s current grade point average (GPA). If a student’s grade point average and self-esteem show a positive correlation, then self-esteem could be a possible indicator of academic success. Recent studies have shown a significant relationship between self-esteem and academic performance and other studies have demonstrated that there is not a significant relationship. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between self-esteem and academic success among college students to better understand if there is or is not a significant relationship between the two