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American Children Are Drowning in Self-Esteem

1843magazine.com

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Re: American Children Are Drowning in Self-Esteem

#121

Post by zhemao »

WallWextra wrote: post #113
zhemao wrote: post #110

It doesn't seem like this is a problem with self-esteem. The problem is that American schools don't have good educational standards or trained teachers. In the countries that rank ahead of us in the international assessments, even elementary school teachers need to have education degrees. That is not the case in most American school districts (just need a teaching certificate). Teaching is also a more highly respecte…

1. I don't know what education degrees look like in other countries, but I highly doubt more education majors in the US would solve anything without first overhauling that curriculum and making it more demanding. 2. Is there any factual evidence for this often-repeated stereotype about Asian children having less curiosity and love of learning than American ones?

1. I'm sure they are more rigorous than the education major in the US, which is pretty much a joke. I agree that the way we train teachers has to be revamped.

2. I never said that Asian students are less curious. From interacting with Chinese and South Korean classmates, they are just as intellectually curious as their American peers. I just don't think the East Asian model of education is very good at fostering individual engagement and understanding. It's heavily focused on rote memorization and is definitely "teach to the test". I would welcome a study on it with a good analysis. Don't really known how you would measure it though. South Korea also has the highest suicide rates in the developed world, and much of it is concentrated in those under 18. So there are plenty of reasons why we would not want to adopt it here.

Re: American Children Are Drowning in Self-Esteem

#122

Post by dwaltrip »

gaur wrote: post #106
dwaltrip wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the underlying issue is that you don't like ads or tracking, you could try installing uBlock origin instead of disabling javascript. There are some other useful extensions in this area but uBlock origin is the only one I have experience with. It's been great for me. Usage of javascript as a tool for building web properties is only going to keep increasing, and grumbling about it doesn't solve anything.

> building web properties This phrase gave me pause (why not just say "making wesbites"?), but I think I have a handle on what it implies. "Making websites" is what you do when your main deliverable is content. Maybe you throw in some javascript for a little aesthetic kick or some nice features, but if a user comes to your website with javascript disabled, your goal is to still get the content to them. "Building web…

I used the term "properties" as I thought it would be a more generic term. We are past the days where the internet is only used for static web pages. I wasn't trying to imply monetization via ads.

You paint a stark dichotomy between static websites and javascript powered "content honeypots". There are millions of web apps out there that are not the latter, and use javascript to provide real value.

Re: American Children Are Drowning in Self-Esteem

#123

Post by dwaltrip »

quadrangle wrote: post #120
dwaltrip wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the underlying issue is that you don't like ads or tracking, you could try installing uBlock origin instead of disabling javascript. There are some other useful extensions in this area but uBlock origin is the only one I have experience with. It's been great for me. Usage of javascript as a tool for building web properties is only going to keep increasing, and grumbling about it doesn't solve anything.

Lots of complaints about how stupid it is for people to require javascript to display text and images does help people realize how stupid that is. Using Javascript and requiring javascript is not the same thing. People who want to apologize for whatever bad shit is in the world always like to complain about complainers, sheesh. What does that solve?

You comment assumes the complainer is correct in their analysis of the alleged "bad thing". For the specific case at hand, you haven't provided much of an argument to support this position.

Re: American Children Are Drowning in Self-Esteem

#124

Post by reflexive »

charlesdm wrote: post #43
skywhopper wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a time and a place for critique, and immediately after a performance is neither. Only a jerk with truly low self-esteem would think that it was appropriate to offer unsolicited criticicism of the performance skills of a teenager in a rock band to their face at the performance. If it's their music instructor, maybe. But again, that's not really the place. Next lesson would be the right time and place to get th…

Are you an American? I'm European, and maybe this is just personal experience / a personal anecdote, but whenever I've had conversations with an American I found that they tend to always be really excited and then casually ignore any further communication. It's much harder to figure out for me what an American _actually_ means vs say a Belgian or a British person. No point in being an open person if you're only touti…

Maybe this is part of why a lot more popular bands come from the US than from Europe?

Not to be glib, but when I lived in Europe I was shocked at how many unknown American bands they would fly out to play at tiny venues (bars, "underground" clubs) every weekend. I asked, don't you have your own unknown bands that rehearse in garages and dorm rooms? It turns out: not so much, not nearly to the level that this exists in America.

So maybe the difference is that Europeans like to shit all over their friends' bands?

Re: American Children Are Drowning in Self-Esteem

#125

Post by quadrangle »

dwaltrip wrote: post #123
quadrangle wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of complaints about how stupid it is for people to require javascript to display text and images does help people realize how stupid that is. Using Javascript and requiring javascript is not the same thing. People who want to apologize for whatever bad shit is in the world always like to complain about complainers, sheesh. What does that solve?

You comment assumes the complainer is correct in their analysis of the alleged "bad thing". For the specific case at hand, you haven't provided much of an argument to support this position.

Wait, are you actually suggesting the complaint itself is invalid? That it makes sense for a website to fail to show plain text unless it can run some client-side JavaScript program???

Re: American Children Are Drowning in Self-Esteem

#126

Post by plandis »

charlesdm wrote: post #59
mgalka wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What country are you from? In my experience Americas fall somewhere in the middle in terms of directness, compared to European countries. I lived in the UK for a few years and found Brits very hard to read / resistant to confrontation. On the other hand, I'm married to a Spaniard, and when I'm over there, it's sometimes a bit uncomfortable how direct and open people are.

Belgium. It's not necessarily the directness that I mind, it's the fact that often people are (excuse my language) full of shit. They say A, but actually mean B. Which is a trait, for example, the British have as well, but one I seem to understand a lot better than when I'm dealing with Americans.

That kinds of seems like you're looking at a different culture of people from your own perspective.

Try to look at it from the other point of view rather than writing it off because it is not your "one true way".

Re: American Children Are Drowning in Self-Esteem

#128

Post by dwaltrip »

quadrangle wrote: post #125
dwaltrip wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You comment assumes the complainer is correct in their analysis of the alleged "bad thing". For the specific case at hand, you haven't provided much of an argument to support this position.

Wait, are you actually suggesting the complaint itself is invalid? That it makes sense for a website to fail to show plain text unless it can run some client-side JavaScript program???

It obviously isn't the optimal solution, but there are many factors at play here. A few I can think of:

* The available tech stacks and tools for building and iterating on an online magazine with a rich UX that works on a variety of devices

* The skillsets of the development team

* The trends in app development (such as single page apps, which do offer certain advantages)

* The propoprtion of people who disable javascript, especially in the target demographic (probably quite small)

* Project budget

* The desired features for the current and future versions of the project

And so on. Of course, it would be much better to fall back to just displaying the text. But it isn't completely obvious that, in all cases, it is worth whatever additional cost to do so. Outside of the HN-bubble, there are very, very few people who disable javascript.

Re: American Children Are Drowning in Self-Esteem

#129

Post by wott »

charlesdm wrote: post #43
skywhopper wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a time and a place for critique, and immediately after a performance is neither. Only a jerk with truly low self-esteem would think that it was appropriate to offer unsolicited criticicism of the performance skills of a teenager in a rock band to their face at the performance. If it's their music instructor, maybe. But again, that's not really the place. Next lesson would be the right time and place to get th…

Are you an American? I'm European, and maybe this is just personal experience / a personal anecdote, but whenever I've had conversations with an American I found that they tend to always be really excited and then casually ignore any further communication. It's much harder to figure out for me what an American _actually_ means vs say a Belgian or a British person. No point in being an open person if you're only touti…

Americans get excited about the most commonplace things like they were 12-year old virgins. You can also see it here when some idiotic startup comes up with an idiotic business model. I can never decide if they are serious or not.

Same in sports. They all go full hysterical mode when they qualify for the next round of 8. Er... boy, you do this every week, you haven't failed reaching the final once in the last 3 years, why do you and your team mates and your family need to overplay it so much as if you accomplished anything special? Do other players/athletes from other countries need to do the same? No.

I can't see the point to spread and spread and spread on things which have just been done how they should be done. Acknowledge them and move to the stuff which went wrong or can be improved, that's more interesting.

About making a fuss about nothing, I remember that time when I visited the USA as a teenager, and when we left most of the American adults began to cry (after we managed to escape from the bloody hugs. I don't know who invented hugs, but I hate him.). We looked at each other, wondering what was going on. It seemed our departure was something big, so we tried to force ourselves to do the same but we didn't manage to shed a tear. So we kids had to witness all these grown-ups crying for nothing. That scene shocked me, I remember it after 25 years.

(Okay, one possible explanation was that they may have thought that we were sent back to slavery in a third-world commie state, since God knows all countries don't have the luck to be in northern America.)

Re: American Children Are Drowning in Self-Esteem

#130

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

Balgair wrote: post #55
sp332 wrote: post #4

If self-esteem is so high, why is suicide so common? Giving someone self-esteem doesn't mean letting them whine all the time. Your swimming instructors saying “C’mon dude, stop complaining, let’s get on with it!” IS giving the kid self-esteem! Teaching many ways to add is important because not all kids are going to be able to learn the same way at that age. Different methods are going to "click" for different student…

Facebook. Suicide is considered 'contagious'. Before social media (1970) the 'contagiousness' (to really muddle a complex issue) was ~6. Meaning that each suicide 'affected' 6 other young people deeply, seriously disrupted their life, or left them feeling suicidal as well. Typically this was only close friends and family. Now, as we are all more connected, we see that a single suicide affects more people and more qui…

> If you are feeling suicidal, there are many resources available.

There are resources readily available to stop you killing yourself right now. After that the prospects for help tend to dry up pretty quickly until you boil down to the next crisis. Hotlines are a fine thing to have and to promote, but they're not nearly enough.

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