American parents and educators were stunned to find out this week that only a measly 93% of U.S. high school students in a recent Josephson Institute survey were “satisfied with their personal ethics and character.” This leaves a whopping 7% who apparently have fallen though the cracks of our educational system and become inexplicably burdened by their moral shortcomings.

If 7% of our kids are still experiencing bouts of low self-esteem, then where did we go wrong, America?

Over the past several years, we have bombarded our children with enough indulgent parenting and ego-boosting school programs to swell the head of the most respectable self-flagellating hermit monk. With this amount of positive reinforcement, even perpetually-defeated Eeyore would get cocky and start talking smack to Christopher Robin in the Hundred Acre Wood.

On top of that, we have created a pop culture that has done its best to spare our young generation any hurt feelings by eliminating all possible references to negativity in the English language. That’s why in the last several years the words “bad,” “sick,” and “wicked” have become adjectives to describe something positive. Just try telling a teen that he’s wearing a bad pair of shoes or that his new tongue piercing is sick, and he will certainly thank you for the compliment. Never mind the fact that giving these words an opposite meaning can cause a person over 40 to think he’s suffering from a stroke-related injury to the language center of his brain. All that really matters is that we have helped our children feel better about themselves by not bumming them out with judgmental terms.

All in all, I’d say we’ve set up a pretty good child-rearing system over the past three decades that produces the kind of kid who is oblivious to his imperfections. In fact, according to research in the November 2008 issue of Psychological Science, today’s American high school students have a very lofty (and unrealistic) opinion of themselves in comparison to their more down-to-earth counterparts who were surveyed back in 1975. Based on this study and others, you would have to believe that we have successfully produced a generation of high-schoolers completely in love with themselves and their ability to rock out “Barracuda” on Guitar Hero III.

So how in the world do we still have 7% of our teenagers immune to all the gratuitous adoration lavished upon them? It makes a person scratch his head and wonder how these pesky self-loathers could still exist. Oh sure, you can point to the Josephson Institute study and see that a disturbing percentage of today’s teens admit to stealing from stores (30%), lying to save money (42%), and cheating on schoolwork (64%). But this is merely an unfortunate by-product of telling these kids to be the best that they can be. Who knew they wanted to be the best liars, cheats, and thieves they can be? 

Undoubtedly, this alarming revelation of guilty conduct among teens explains why those poor 7% couldn’t bring themselves to give a big “thumbs up” to their ethical standing. I certainly understand their apprehension. But the last thing we need is for the other 93% to fall into the same trap as the minority and start feeling bad about themselves just because they recognize their tendency toward corrupt behavior. What good would it do if parents and teachers allowed these kids to beat themselves up over their predisposition to sin?

Over two thousand years ago, there was a very famous teacher from Nazareth who felt it was wise to challenge a confident young man to acknowledge his own lack of goodness. And what was the outcome in that confrontation? It only made the young man feel sad. Is that what we want? A bunch of miserable people feeling sorry for themselves? We already have too many post-election Republicans moping around as it is.

So let’s think about this. If we force these kids to look hard at themselves in a healthy way, then what will happen? It’s possible they will finally realize that their self-worth can never be established on the basis of their own perceived goodness— a goodness which has already been discounted by their unethical actions. Next, they might start looking outside of themselves for a genuine goodness on which they can depend. Good grief, they might even hear the gospel of God’s grace, deny their vain reliance on self, and find their true worth in Jesus Christ.

Whoa. Come to think of it, that sounds like pretty heady stuff. Maybe, just maybe, we should start telling our kids about this wicked alternative to self-esteem called “faith in Christ.”

By the way, for those of you over 40: a “wicked” alternative would be considered a good thing.