Teaching Matters/Breda O'Brien: Like most adults who work with them on a daily basis, I like young people. I get irate on their behalf when the media insist on portraying them as a "shower of wasters". Somehow, all the generous things young people do, from bag-packing in supermarkets for charity to volunteering in the developing world, never make headlines.

Similarly, the numerous young people who drink responsibly are never highlighted, and neither are the many who manage to navigate the difficulties of adolescence with grace and good humour.

My gut feeling is that young people are much the same as they were in previous generations, but that they face pressures older adults never had to face. Nor has the older generation been particularly successful in helping young people develop the skills to find their way through a very changed world. It is as if older generations have had a collective crisis of confidence in their own values and principles, and become hesitant about handing them on.

At the same time, there was an explosion of interest in how to exploit young people as a market, and highly sophisticated mechanisms were developed in order to separate young people from their disposable incomes, which are higher than at any other time in Irish history. Very early on, marketers and manufacturers realised that the more that they could promote youth culture, with its emphasis on choice and individualism, and the more they could separate young people from the influence of older people, the more they could sell to them. Given this double whammy, the simultaneous loss of confidence of older people in their own cultural values, and the creation of youth culture as a means of maximising sales, the only wonder is that so many young people are as sane and sensible as they are.

One of the ways in which we have short-changed young people is by promoting self-esteem as a panacea for all ills. As soon as I write something like this, I am usually accused of wanting poor self-esteem for young people, or that they should feel the kind of crippling self-doubt and shyness that afflicted many Irish people of previous generations. This is nonsense. It is wonderful to see how self-confident and articulate most young people have become.

However, there are two types of self-esteem. One is a bedrock conviction of one's own worth, simply because one is a human being. The other philosophy states that no-one should have to feel bad about anything, and choosing what is right for oneself trumps any other considerations. The first is essential; the second is positively dangerous.

There is, rightly, huge concern about bullying in schools and workplaces. However, little attention has been paid to a major study commissioned by the Rowntree Foundation a few years ago. After surveying available research, Prof Nicholas Emler reached some counter-intuitive conclusions. Surprisingly, self-esteem has little impact on academic success. Moreover, those with high self-esteem are more likely to hold racist attitudes, to drive dangerously and to risk their health with drugs and alcohol. It is the ones with inflated egos, not low self-esteem, who are most likely to bully.

Anecdotally, most second-level teachers will testify that it is also the students with inflated egos who are downright rude, and inclined to treat teachers like hired help. They are also most likely to demand to be spoon-fed, and least likely to put the work into learning for themselves.

What happens to these young people when they leave school? Do they carry their narcissism with them into the world of work and their future relationships?

This has important implications for educators. It is interesting that in Civic, Social and Political Education, those consulted on the new syllabus insisted on a balance between rights and responsibilities. Perhaps it is time to remember that balance everywhere, and that parents also remember it. Not unsurprisingly, Prof Emler found the strongest influences on self-esteem are parents. However, self-esteem is not achieved through praising everything a child does, regardless of whether they deserve it. As Paul Martin, author of Making Happy Children puts it: "The over-praised child comes to interpret anything short of glowing praise as criticism and anything less than instant success as failure."

Inner resources are needed to cope with the inevitable disappointments, failures and frustrations of life. Are we doing students any favours if we do not help them to come to a realistic sense of themselves and their abilities?

Social, Personal and Health Education is one area where values such as altruism and kindness could be promoted. It might be interesting, now that it is reasonably well established in most schools, to look at whether important insights from the character formation model could be incorporated into this area. Character formation relies far less on self-esteem, and far more on self-efficacy, which is the sense that, no matter what life throws at you, you have the skills and inner resources to cope with it. There is also an emphasis on basics such as good manners and treating others with respect. Are we short-changing our young people if we send them out with high points and high self-esteem, but lacking ability to deal with life?

Breda O'Brien is a teacher at Dominican Convent, Muckross Park, Dublin, and an Irish Times columnist