Analysis of an argumentative essay: “grades and self-esteem”What is self-esteem? Self-esteem is confidence in one's own worth or abilities. In “Grades & Self-Esteem,” author Randy Moore (2007) stated that student performance levels declined as schools built students' self-esteem. Author Alfie Kohn (1994) stated in his article "The Truth About Self-Esteem" to contradict Moore's view that academics and self-esteem are unrelated. Moore discussed some beneficial points that are helpful to students, but in some cases his argument did not make better sense. I agree with Moore's article that American students do not perform as well academically as students in other countries. I disagree with Moore's view that an emphasis on self-esteem is responsible for poor performance. While a student's level of self-esteem may not determine their future, good self-esteem can motivate them to study hard and reach their academic potential. Randy Moore (2007) stated that people complain that students are not performing well academically: “Only 11% of eighth graders in California public schools can solve seventh grade math problems” ( p.118). Kie Ho (2007) gave an example of an immigrant's complaints that German said that on her son's first day of first grade, his school included multiplication and division on his math test (p. 112) . Moore (2007) stated that due to too many mistakes made by American workers, tasks are shifted to other countries. In my opinion the reason for outsourcing work is that in other countries the labor cost is cheaper than America and America also has a good economy so the Moore's opinion was not acceptable.Mo...... middle of paper... ...since. High self-esteem could lead to overconfidence which encourages students to do bad activities. Low self-esteem could lead to depression, which allows students to attempt suicide. High and low self-esteem influence students in different ways. References Ho, K. (2007). We should cherish our children's freedom of thought. In R. Spack (Ed.), Guidelines: A cross-cultural reading/writing text (pp. 112-114). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Kohn, A. (1994). The truth about self-esteem Phi Delta Kappan, 76(4), 272-283. Kohn, A. (2002). The dangerous myth of grade inflation The Chronical of Higher Education, 49(11), p. B7. Moore, R. (2007). Grades and self-esteem. In R. Spack (Ed.), Guidelines: A cross-cultural reading/writing text (pp. 125-126). New York, New York: Cambridge University Press.