Joe, I agree with you completely. I was only stating what I believed is a current trend in thinking. "Lay off the kid - he's doing his best." (No, not really.) Like you, I feel that if someone's self esteem is based solely on believing everything they do is good, they're going to suffer a real blow outside of the classroom. Never telling a child they do something right is horrible, but not believing in them enough to think they can do better?! Denying kids the chance to make progress and thereby gain confidence in their abilities is a crime.