I was enjoying a nice Saturday afternoon with my 6 year old working on the computer (after his baseball game and after he helped his little sister as he will be "well rounded" if it is the last thing I (or he) does; but I digress).
Forget the fact that he can search web sites, has his favorite pulldown menu and knows how to naviagte the control menu, I noticed his sports trophies...all SEVEN of them! We had to buy a side table to hold them as the top of his dresser became too crowded. He is 6!
What is it with trophies for just "showing up"? Is this good enough? It is certainly a positive step to "get started" but is this a good example for teenagers and young adults that as long as they show up they will be rewarded and all will be fine? Is this REALLY in the best interest for them down the line? What the heck happended to struggling, competing, winning, losing, celebrating, crying and challenging yourselves to be better? Is that not "in vogue" anymore?
Well it should be. Efforts like OCTANe Next, MIND Institute and other innovative groups focus on results and help PREPARE our youth in an "outcome driven way"; that is future careers and the hope that a high value job will enable them to have a good and productive life.
After all ... business is not an intramural sport.
Thoughts?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Excellent post, Gary.
In real life, people normally fail multiple times before succeeding. From Thomas Edison right through the typical entrepreneur, the consistent story is that the courage to keep trying after multiple failures is what ultimately leads to success.
Over the past couple of decades it has become in vogue to think that everyone who shows up should get a prize, or else we will irreperably damage egos. In reality, we are doing our young people a tremendous dis-service by "protecting" them from the important life lesson that it's ok to fail, so long as you have the courage to try again.
perseverence is key and great speaker of character
credit repair
We're teaching our kids to be mush heads with all of this awarding for nothing. It's almost as bad as "no child left behind" in public school. You can grow up to be an idiot.
Gary, going back to an event hosted by OCTANe in April, regarding Generation X and Y and how the companies will respond to their needs, the situation you bring up about your son receiving a trophy for showing up is where the talent pool is headed in the next 10/15/20 years. Employees from Generation Y and Generation 2000 will demand recognition for what used to be "doing your job."
I agree with Ken and the other poster and having watched my kids grow up in Orange Co. I fully agree that this IS NOT in the best interest of the children. Sure they like getting trophies but now their value has been greatly reduced to the point where they carry little intrinsic value.
Thus my son calmly parted with a couple of the larger trophies recently because 'he didn't like that team so much'
In my day Trophies were Trophies and we would have never dreamed of parting with any, certainly not the larger ones but then we only got them rarely
I was a Little League commissioner a few years ago and was stunned to learn that no one is cut during tryouts these days. Every player is assigned a team. In my day many didn't make the cut and they had to suck it up and try harder next year or not play ball.
It might have been a harsher (less Mommy friendly) system but one that was ultimately in the better interest of the kids IMO.
Post a Comment