Self-esteem study no joke

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 20

Self-esteem study no joke

California is the land of superlatives. Those who look to it for the utmost, whether in excellence or absurdity, are seldom disappointed. Certainly, Governor George Deukmejian’s latest action has given much pleasure to eastcoast fans of his state. He has signed a bill to establish a task force on self-esteem. Other Americans like to think of Californians as fruits and nuts who uncritically pursue cults, eastern religions and courses of introspective therapy, or preen themselves after what the small ads winsomely call reconstructive surgery. Whatever self-es-

teem may be, California, it is thought, has quite enough of it. Add to that the reputatoin of the task force’s sponsor, Mr John Vasconcellos, a liberal Democrat who is said to have once gone through a "flower-child” phase, and the east-coast picture of the west was complete. As usual, that picture is mistaken. Mr Vasconcellos knows just what he is doing. The task force is to look at six areas: crime and delinquency, drug and drink taking, teenage pregnancy, child molesting, welfare dependency and poor results at school. It will ask whether self-esteem may not have a part to play in

reducing these pervasive afflictions.

The point, Mr Vasconcellos says, is to look for solutions to social problems that do not involve the old-fashioned remedy of throwing money at them. If it is at all successful, the task force may turn, out to be a bargain. Its annual budget of $245,000 would pay for just 13 inmates each year in California’s prisons. Mr Vasconcellos points out that Orange County, not the most liberal part of the state, already runs a self-esteem programme in its schools.

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