Pride

What's the story with "pride" as a negative connotation?
Here's what I think is the upside of pride.
Today, I sat in an audience of students, teachers and a few parents that attended our middle school's 6th grade awards ceremony. I was bowled over by the spirit of pride in the room...parents that not only cheered for their own kids, but cheered for their kids' friends, for the neighbor kids up the street, for the kid who played on their daughter's/son's basketball team 3 years ago. Teachers who insisted their wish for the day was to present "awards to every child in the room...because they were so proud of each and every student."
There is this collective sense of community, of hard work paying off, of struggle and sacrifice in pride. Pride is the driver behind highly motivated (and successful) people. Sure it has to be well managed and sometimes even contained, but isn't pride really a positive motivator...and a trait we should be encouraging in our kids...in ourselves?