A Worthy Contribution To Society?

Should we instill our children with confidence and self-esteem? This seems to be a worthy contribution to society, but how far should we take this? At what point might this instillation become detrimental? Does it not seem some kids are too confident of themselves? Have you ever seen kids that project superiority?

I believe what should be ingrained in children more than confidence and self-esteem is respecting others. Jesus referred to this as “putting others above yourself”. The problem with prioritizing your kids' confidence and self-esteem is that this ultimately puts it above respecting others. And as I have alluded to before, if one believes their children should have the utmost in confidence and self-esteem above all else, they will at times subvert sensitivity and decency toward others.

Furthermore, I believe instilling your children with the ideal of respecting others will systematically lead to a positive self image, in turn engendering confidence and self-esteem. Might many peoples' confidence and self esteem be built upon the fallacy that they should be better than others? Might this very well explain why many feel obligated to be better or at least appear better than others? Because of low confidence and self-esteem?

In this case, the very thing instilling confidence and self-esteem is supposed to prevent (low confidence and self-esteem) is the very thing it invites! This is not unlike many things in life. Oftentimes, wars are waged supposedly for the sake of peace. Retribution is doled out supposedly to stave off further “wrongs”. Do they tend to be effective? If anything, they are effective at magnifying the very problems they are meant to eradicate.