Developing A Curriculum of Self-Esteem for Black Youth

Maslow' lists esteem among the basic needs of all human beings. He posits that the need for esteem must be adequately satisfied before the individual can move comfortably toward gratifying his need to actualize his common and unique potential for learning. To differentiate between the two, esteem connotes high regard and respect, wherein self-esteem more closely relates to a belief in oneself, self-pride, self-respect, and a high regard for oneself. Every child in the school setting, regardless of race or social class, has need for esteem in the eyes of his peers and in his own eyes. Every child needs strength, a sense of achievement, a feeling of adequacy and confidence, and a feeling of independence and control in terms of physical and mental tasks and activities of the school curriculum. Children, similar to their parents, search for status, prestige, attention, and recognition for personal achievement. Due to the double difficulty of being Black and poor, many Black children find it difficult to meet their need for esteem within the traditional curricular setting. Moreover, a child's self-esteem is commensurate to a strong positive self-concept, and there have been scores of studies that correlate self-concept with academic achievement. The implication here is that if the Black child is to learn and if he is to have a positive self-concept, then the school setting must provide curricular experiences that will foster selfesteem in the Black child or, in other words, help him to meet his need for esteem

Curriculum · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Self-esteem · Sociology · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Education Systems and Policy · Gender Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology

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  Open Access•Gwen Bergner•American Quarterly•2009

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• Self-Esteem, Cultural Identity, and Psychosocial Adjustment in African American Children

  Open Access•Arthur L Whaley•Journal of Black Psychology•1993

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