Before this, achieving a ribbon on track and field day meant something. It meant you performed better than the others. Afterwards, everyone got a ribbon. Before, there was actual grades, and F was one of them. After, getting an F due to lack of achievement was pretty much forbidden - and many grading systems went away from A-F. I've known teachers who only gave an F when they decided that they were leaving the profession and so they could actually grade with an F without career suicide, rather than giving passing grades to students who absolutely refused to learn or do any work. Before, creative spelling and math were unheard of. After, students get a 100% on a spelling exam, despite not spelling any of the words correctly. I've seen the same thing in math. All in the name of self esteem. Before, graduating from elementary school was no big deal. Certainly, there was no ceremony. It was simply expected and normal. Now, most schools seem to have a ceremony, not just for this mundane event, but for graduating from any grade.
It was predicted when this self esteem boosting was imposed by the education establishment that there would be problems. How would such a generation function once they leave the artificial environment of the education establishment? Wouldn't they be like plants grown in a green house, that die when exposed to a natural environment? We can all see that now.
We live in an amazing time with unprecedented freedom, prosperity, health, etc. Just go back in time 100 years and do a comparison. And yet, what is the focus?
The worst blow to self esteem comes when, as an adult, you realize you've been lied to all of these years during your education and that you actually suck at what you do or you studied a dead end (career wise) path, and have no hope of paying off those expensive loans.