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Self-esteem has been targeted as being responsible for children'smediocre performances in academic, social, and moral areas. What manyhave come to believe about self-esteem, however, is known as "feel-good"self-esteem. This view of self-esteem has given us a deceptive, one-sidedview of self-esteem and is responsible for perpetrating a number of mythswhich are discussed and dispelled in this paper. The more dynamiccomponent of self-esteem, inner self-esteem, based on children's actualcompetencies, has been overlooked for decades. Inner self-esteem isenhanced by helping children develop the necessary skills to succeed inschool and act in socially-competent and morally-responsible ways whichleads to "competency-based" self-esteem. Competency-based self-esteemis enhanced by meeting challenging standards and expectations and bybehaving in socially-valued ways.