Dialogue+between+my+sources

Dialogue between my sources: **Sources** (both on JSTOR): A Theory of Self-Esteem by Alicia D. Cast and Peter J. Burke Politics of Self-Esteem by Joseph Kahne
 * Working Thesis**: A teacher must be aware of--and work to improve--the level of self-esteem that a student has in order to teach effectively.


 * Dialogue:**

[This discourse takes place at a soccer game for 12 year old girls. Both Alicia D. Cast and Joseph Kahne are standing on the sidelines watching their daughters play soccer. They discuss the concept of "self-esteem" and I link it to the tactics used by my educational initiative, Children Beyond Our Borders.]

Kahne: Hi Alicia! Your little Alicia Jr. is looking great out there! She’s really coming into her own as goalie.

Cast: Thanks Joseph. She’s been working really hard, and the coach has been giving her a lot of extra attention which has helping her gain confidence. She had a rough patch where she missed a lot of shots, but the individual attention that she got really helped her get her self-esteem back.

Kahne: Well I’m glad that she’s doing so well, but I’m not sure that self-esteem is what she’s gotten out of the individual attention. “Self-esteem” is a tricky concept, Alicia. If you have read my article “Politics of Self-esteem,” you would notice that I discuss how that word is thrown around a lot, especially in forming policies, but it’s hard to pin down a defintion.

Cast: I agree, Joseph. Self-esteem is a blanket term that refers to a lot of things. How would you define it?

Kahne: I would say that self-esteem refers to the level of satisfaction we have with our self-concept.

Cast: That’s an interesting definition. Mine is similar: it refers to an individual’s overall positive evaluation of the self. I think we agree there.

Kahne: Yes, I agree with that definition.

Cast: I have spent a lot of my article discussing how self-esteem relates to self-verification.

Kahne: That seems like a confusing concept; they seem almost synonymous.

Cast: Yes, it might seem like that, but I argue that they are cyclical; one contributes to the other, and vice-versa. When an individual is part of a larger group, they need self-verification. And they can get this from a higher level of self-esteem.

Kahne: I see. So your daughter, as a member of this soccer team, needs high self-esteem so that she can verify herself as a viable member of the group she belongs to.

Cast: Exactly. That’s why I think self-esteem is so important for self-verification.

Me: Hey guys, I’ve been listening to your conversation about self-esteem, and I really agree. The concept of self-esteem is a tricky issue. But I do think that it’s important to develop self-esteem for group membership. I also think it’s very important for education.

Kahne: Oh, I hadn’t really thought about self-esteem in terms of education. What do you mean?

Me: Well, I’ll give you an example. A program called Children Beyond Our Borders helps teach students in Latin America. One of their main projects is called “One Child At a Time,” which basically focuses on individual attention, and the importance of building a child’s self-esteem in order to teach them.

Cast: That sounds just like what my daughter’s coach did with her.

Me: Yes, and I really think that it’s an important component of teaching anyone anything. If the student doesn’t have the self-esteem to learn, then the system isn’t working. CBOB is definitely working to fix that. Your daughter's coach rebuilt her self esteem, just like the teachers at the CBOB program are building up the self-esteem of their students. I definitely think it's working for their initiative. Kahne: That sounds like an interesting way to tie our self-esteem conversation into the idea of education.