ABSTRACT
Healthy self-esteem does not necessarily depend on appearance or on physical or intellectual capacities, although success in any of these areas certainly helps a lot. There are many children without exceptional talents who are blessed with a very strong sense of their own intrinsic value, not as performers or achievers but simply as kids in their family, students in their school and young people in their community.
Jake is a ten-year-old boy whose medical condition has limited his intellectual and physical development. He is struggling with his school work and cannot participate successfully in sport.
When asked how he does at school his standard reply is ‘Pretty bad. I’m not smart, no way!’
But when he was asked who he would be if he could choose to be anyone in the world, his answer was: ‘Anyone at all? I reckon I’d choose to be me … because my family wouldn’t be the same without me … and my friends at school … they’d say it was weird … really weird … not having me around.’
