[refurb]

The positive encouragement model of raising/educating children is a relatively new thing in the US, so I don't think it has much to do with the "can-do" mentality. I'm in my mid-30s and we certainly didn't have it in school when I was growing up. I can remember my brother getting held back a grade.

If anything, I think its the current model that threatens the "can-do" attitude of the US, since I think a lot of the "can-do" attitude is really resilience. It an attitude that says "this won't be easy and I might fail, but I can always get up and try again".

If kids gets nothing but positive reinforcement, those initial failures are going to be particularly painful and discouraging. I think parents can teach their children so much by letting them fail (within boundaries) and giving them not self-confidence that they can do anything, but the self-confidence that they can handle any hardship. That's an important difference.

Before I start getting downvoted, I just want to say I haven't start yelling at kids to "get off my lawn!!" yet. :P

[nzealand]

Americans had more positive encouragement at school 30 years ago than most other countries.