Whether your kid loves Little League or gymnastics, ask the organizers this: “Which kids get awards?” If the answer is, “Everybody” find another program.
Of all people, The NYT challenges that prevalent trend in our culture, that of letting everyone win. One of their big concerns is that widespread recognition leads the talented children to be demoralised whilst those who are average/not that good eventually work it out and also give up. In other words kids at both end of the spectrum end up under performing. They therefore conclude:
When children make mistakes, our job should not be to spin those losses into decorated victories. Instead, our job is to help kids overcome setbacks, to help them see that progress over time is more important than a particular win or loss, and to help them graciously congratulate the child who succeeded when they failed. To do that, we need to refuse all the meaningless plastic and tin destined for landfills. We have to stop letting the Trophy-Industrial Complex run our children's lives.
This school year, let's fight for a kids's right to lose.Read the whole thing here
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