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September 2007 
What class should be added to the elementary curriculum?
Posted on Sep 7th, 2007
by 
Nichele
Nichele
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for September 06, 2007:
Self-Worth.
Lack of this crucial element can lead you to make decisions that produce undesirable results. If children were taught that they were special just because of who they WERE, then they would not feel the need to DO or BUY anything to feel special.
Access: Public
Hey : )
I believe in the value of self-worth and really admire your insight into it's value. I think we need to look at another way of allowing children to discover their own self-worth however. Philosopher Ken Wilber has cited some studies that show telling children they are special because of the simple fact they exist, while being true on an intrinsic level, actually produces a high level of narcissism. This leads to poor inter-personal skills and rather ironically a low sense of self-worth.
I think the best way forward is to really work with children to get the to achieve their passions as they develop through sports or arts or academics etc. Of course the “how to” part is tricky!
From a Buddhist perspective when one has contacted quite deeply what Trungpa called Basic Sanity then again the need for one to try to fill one's lack with doing or buying is very much reduced but again this very often needs to be realized through challenging training.
with warmth, Rich