Rabbitch

You are sooooo right! Especially about depriving children of a reason to excel. And also about children being competitive. All the crap about everyone being equal and not wanting to upset anyone's ego is totally ridiculous!

Barbara
 

Thank you ever so much for this post!!!!
You are so right, this is what I think too!
I am glad to see I am not alone on this pitch...so thanks again!
love and hugs
Melly
(knitchick.melly at gmail dot com)
 

Well I am glad that I am not the only person who thinks this way! I am always frustrated by those (my sister included!) who want to give prizes to EVERYONE for participating in an event or game. Yeah sure, the kids may feel some self-worth, but then they start feeling ENTITLED to whatever they want. No wonder there are teenagers and young adults who have no regard or respect for other people and objects! Great speech, and scream it out more, why don' cha? ;)

=:8
 

Hear, Hear (holding up a mug of coffee). Mostly a lurker here, but I gotta say something here. This trend bugs me too. And don't think it doesn't bug kids or that they don't keep track regardless of whether we give them a ribbon. Why not give a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and then a bunch of participants? Kids like mementos -- they'll like their ribbon more if it, in concert with the others, has some meaning. Fair is that each gets what he needs or has earned, not that everyone gets the same....sheesh!
 

oh you said it all very well. I have failed at a great many things and I think very rarely if ever cried over it. I went off to find the things I could win at :) and now I have a successful career because of that.
 

I agree. Kids aren't stupid and they know that "participant" means diddly squat.

On another, somewhat related rant, I don't think kids should be forced to participate in competitive events. I suck at sports, always have. "Sports Day" was hell for me. All that humiliation! I think gym teachers can find some non-competitive ways to encourage physical fitness in the less athletic students.
 

Furthermore....

If they are going to have competitions, why always limit it to sports activities? If a kid has to be involved in competitive activities shouldn't they be allowed to choose something they enjoy and feel they could do well in? I could have really kicked some ass if they had had knitting competitions in elementary school.
 

Well said.
 

Oh it makes me so happy to have read your post and all the commenters who agree. Why should'nt we be proud and rewarded cause we were the best.
 

I agree completely, and that's as someone who was so far behind in the 80m sprint (age 9) that the teacher on the mike asked for a second round of aplause for me. Fortunately my school also did a public general knowledge quiz, which allowed my tender ego (hah!) to recover fully...

And where did they get off not giving you a participant ribbon?!
 

As is usually the case when experts and psychobabblists get involved, the basic concept behind all winners at this age has been totally screwed up. What i learned when I taught K-1st graders is that this is the age in which bullies are made. Unfortunately, giving everyone a ribbon will not fix that fact that snivelling little child 1 never has anything for snack time and upon calling his mother when it is discovered he is running a fever, she groans 'whatever' and hangs up. Teachers try to compensate and bridge a gap because it is so very easy to distinguish between the haves and have nots as well as the athletic haves and have nots. Reason apparently abandons them and they begin to blanket remedy every uncomfortable scenerio by rewarding all thereby dilluting the reward and still creating bullies. What a bunch of knuckleheads.
 

It's interesting to me that everyone who commented said, "DAMN STRAIGHT" or some variation (I happen to agree) and yet, they're still doing it. Who are these fuzzy, hug-everybody people and why in the name of all that's holy do they have control over our children?
How do you learn to be a gracious loser (or a gracious winner for that matter) if there are no winners and losers?
To further what Janice said, just because your team lost doesn't mean you should be denied the pizza party. There is honor in working your hardest and not making it, and having no distinction blurs that.
Oh, and Farm-witch? What you mentioned is the reason that, occasionally, I really think it would be a good idea to require procreation licenses. "Lazy about birth control" should not be the biggest qualifying factor in parenthood. IMHO.
 

Well said dear.
 

Sounds a lot like "Harrison Bergeron" (Vonnegut) to me. And we all know how well *that* turned out.
 

I don't know what spam you're getting, but mine promises me that Bro, I'll be bigger than all my male friends.

That is one contest for which I DON'T want a ribbon, thanks ;-)
 

When Nancie was in Elementary school, they were divided into Houses, and then each house got points for 1st, 2nd, 3rd in the races.

At the end the House with the most points got the lst place ribbon, then 2nd, etc.
 

Wordy McWord
 

I agree with you on competition. It should be handled with grace, enjoyment and pride in accomplishment. The ribbons that I won as a kid were mostly from showing my horse. Most of our ribbons came from speed events. For some reason, I kept them all these years. That being said, is there a particular color you would like? I can let them go now.
 

(stands up and applauds)
 

I hate the teacher already.

I agree with Marlene: why Sports Day? Losing on Sports Day would be bad enough (and I would, I assure you), but getting a PARTICIPANT ribbon would just put insult on injury.
The bane of my elementary school (and junior high) existence was competitive sport. What was the point? If they'd only told me I'd be pear-shaped at 50, I might have tried. That wasn't the point then, though.

BTW. Great idea. I'm going to title all my posts after the latest spam I've received.

And now that you have the space, just how spacious is the roving cupboard?
 

Isn't this the theme of The Incredibles? "When EVERYONE is special, then no-one is." Speaking as someone who grew to be five foot and a fag-end high, and was always the tiniest in the class and the last in any race on Sports Day.... you just have to learn sometime that there are things you'll never be good at, for physical reasons.
We all must learn to deal with it our own way.
I knew I couldn't win, and as I spent a lot of time pretending to be a horse anyway, I simply cantered (in a very collected way and doing flying changes occasionally) around the track and ignored the anguished screams of team-mates.
Didn't upset me none.
 

I couldn't agree more. There is feel good and then there is this whole setting up of the next generation who have no grasp of anything competitive. There should be no medals for simply competiting. It isn't all about "feeling good" at the end. I'm seriously concerned about the message this is sending. Not to mention that it leaves kids completely uneducated in the true ways of the world. Thank you for this post.
 

I sorta agree and sorta disagree. Depends on the event and the age of the kids. In my 4-year-old's soccer league, they only kinda keep track of who wins and loses, as at this stage it's more about learning the basic skills and how to work as a team. It's pretty common for a kid to score a goal for the other team, as they're still a bit shaky on direction. As they get older and advance into higher levels, it becomes more about competition. I have to say I like this approach.

On the other hand, a basic race is pretty darn easy for a kid to understand--you don't have to change direction, you don't have to remember who's on your team and who isn't, it's pretty obvious who won. I think it's fine to reward all the kids who make the effort to participate, but I do think ribbons saying "first place", "second place" would be entirely appropriate and give satisfaction to the ones who won. And, too, if they're a bit older, (say 6 or over), they should be learning how to handle competition.
 

First, I agree with those who said that the kids know the difference. They do. And the research proves it (they did a study to find out whether kids who constantly had their egos pumped for doing nothing actually had better self-esteem. They didn't. But they did gain in self esteem when they accomplished something and were recognized and rewarded for it.)

That being said, I see nothing wrong with recognizing the kids who simply participated in the race. Life is competitive. But of course you will never win the race (actual or metaphorical) if you never get up off the couch and actually run the race.
 

You know what really fucking pisses me off? Teeball.

That is the most pointless sport ever. It's hella fun to watch, but they don't keep score, there's no "outs" and basically the kids are running crazy everywhere.

Morons.

PS - I got the "2nd place" role in my 12th grade play, and you can better believe that I camped that up until nobody knew the "lead" girl was even there.

I'm mean and nasty like that.

PS - need you to email me. Want to come visit, but not sure I can come the 24th.
 

Personally, I hated school sport with an absolute passion.

Now I'm over 30 and overweight, I've taken up jogging. I never learnt to run as a young person, you see. I thought it was all about going flat out, and dying after about 50m.

In my last 8km race, I came 1005 out of 1011. I am never going to win one of those suckers. I'm built totally wrong. But, screw it, someone needed to come 1005th and it was me.

But no bugger gave me a ribbon for doing it. Doing it was the reward. Yeah, I lose at running. I rock at knitting. But if sitting on the couch drinking wine would make me thin and healthy, I think it would have done it already.
 

Late on the bandwagon, as usual. But I wanted to say that I totally agree with you. And I even eat organic yogurt and shit. ~bonnie