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Summary: The so-called "self-esteem movement"--a progressive, child-centered, discovery model of schooling--has transformed schools into therapeutic clinics and teachers into counselors, creating a generation of righteous, entitled, underachieving children. An insider's account of the pernicious aspects of this seemingly well-meaning movement, The Feel-Good Curriculum provides devastating evidence that our belief in the power and importance of self-esteem in education is misplaced and without basis.Avoiding political posturing and political correctness, The Feel-Good Curriculum identifies the four specific effects of self-esteem's stranglehold on our schools--narcissism, emotivism, separatism, and cynicism. It prescribes clear antidotes to them--empathy, rationality and morality, connectedness, and skepticism--and offers a hopeful view of educational philosophy for the next millennium. Professor Stout urges us to replace our coddling, indulgent approach to building self-esteem in children with a sense of authentic self-confidence developed from intellectual, physical, and moral effort and achievement.