The mantra of "The Secret", and by extension, the Law of Attraction, is as follows: positive thoughts and positive visualization will have a direct impact on the self. While positivity can improve one's quality of life and resilience through hardship, it can also be misguiding. Holding the belief that positive thinking will manifest positivity in one’s life diminishes the value of hard work and perseverance, such as in the 1970s pursual of "self-esteem-based education". The belief was that for students to succeed academically (and largely, in life), they must develop a positive sense of their own self-worth. The rationale behind this theory comes from the perspective that people who are successful are also generally positive when discussing their success (e.g., motivational speakers), therefore one’s success must be related to how they view themselves. Thus, the American education system received a complete reconstruction to ensure students felt valued in their academic efforts. Grading curves were implemented so that fewer students were held back, honour rolls were removed to prevent lower-achieving individuals from feeling disappointed in themselves, and teachers could no longer grade assignments using red ink as this was viewed as "stigmatizing". Students were no longer held to the same standard of achievement. It was later realized that this system was ultimately unsuccessful in promoting success; lower-achieving students who were advanced further into higher-level grades were unable, or unwilling to, garner an understanding of the curriculum. Thus, in spite of having grandiose self-value, student academic achievement was unable to match it. While empirical research has shown that there is an existing relationship between student self-worth and school achievement, the motivation of students to work hard and achieve based on their own academic merit cannot be discounted.