A Generation of Winners
It seems to me that we are raising a generation of winners. However, these winners will not be winners in the sense that you and I imagine. There is a growing trend toward protecting young children from competitive tasks in order to include all and leave no one out. But I see that this protection is putting an entire generation of our culture on a collision course with failure of the worst kind.
You can see it everywhere if you have a child under the age of 10. Ball games where the score is not kept and where, at the end, the kids are told it was a tie. At the "championship," all the kids get trophies, regardless of how well they played. At school, kids cannot talk about their birthday parties unless all of the children are invited. They don't want anyone to fell left out. Maybe Little Johnny will go postal on everyone when he turns 15 because he didn't get to go to Susie's party in the 1st grade. Yeah, right.
Not long ago, I saw a report on TV that talked about the latest college grads and how they were doing in the workplace. During the show, the bosses of these young professionals were interviewed to talk about some of the differences they saw between this generation of workers and the last few generations. One common observation was very clear – the sensitivity the young people had when confronted with negativity or criticism. All the managers noticed it. They said the new workers worked well in groups and were generally happy people, but that they needed far more positive feedback and encouragement than older workers.
Now I know that there is a tendency to look at young people and compare them unfavorably with "the good old days." But that is not the case here. Normally, older people talk about how lazy the younger generation is or how radical they are. I think those criticisms have been around forever. I am certain, for example, that a father in Nazareth once said, "Oh, my boy Jesus just does not take an interest in carpentry the way he should. What is he going to do with himself?"
No, what we are seeing here is more parts child rearing than human nature. I see that as a big disservice to our children.
If you always keep your child from falling, he will not learn what a painful experience it can be. Later on, he will end up taking foolish risks that he would not have taken if he had been exposed to the real world earlier on.
Of course, I do not mean that we should throw our kids into mini boot camps at 3 years of age. But I do think it would be better just to let the kids learn for themselves what winning and losing or succeeding and failing mean to them as individuals.
If we continue things this way, we will have an entire series of generations of kids who will be crushed by the real-world way of doing business and the real-world harshness of life in general. We need to give our children the tools they need to become effective and competent human beings. Right now, that is not happening.
You can see it everywhere if you have a child under the age of 10. Ball games where the score is not kept and where, at the end, the kids are told it was a tie. At the "championship," all the kids get trophies, regardless of how well they played. At school, kids cannot talk about their birthday parties unless all of the children are invited. They don't want anyone to fell left out. Maybe Little Johnny will go postal on everyone when he turns 15 because he didn't get to go to Susie's party in the 1st grade. Yeah, right.
Not long ago, I saw a report on TV that talked about the latest college grads and how they were doing in the workplace. During the show, the bosses of these young professionals were interviewed to talk about some of the differences they saw between this generation of workers and the last few generations. One common observation was very clear – the sensitivity the young people had when confronted with negativity or criticism. All the managers noticed it. They said the new workers worked well in groups and were generally happy people, but that they needed far more positive feedback and encouragement than older workers.
Now I know that there is a tendency to look at young people and compare them unfavorably with "the good old days." But that is not the case here. Normally, older people talk about how lazy the younger generation is or how radical they are. I think those criticisms have been around forever. I am certain, for example, that a father in Nazareth once said, "Oh, my boy Jesus just does not take an interest in carpentry the way he should. What is he going to do with himself?"
No, what we are seeing here is more parts child rearing than human nature. I see that as a big disservice to our children.
If you always keep your child from falling, he will not learn what a painful experience it can be. Later on, he will end up taking foolish risks that he would not have taken if he had been exposed to the real world earlier on.
Of course, I do not mean that we should throw our kids into mini boot camps at 3 years of age. But I do think it would be better just to let the kids learn for themselves what winning and losing or succeeding and failing mean to them as individuals.
If we continue things this way, we will have an entire series of generations of kids who will be crushed by the real-world way of doing business and the real-world harshness of life in general. We need to give our children the tools they need to become effective and competent human beings. Right now, that is not happening.
posted by Neil Dallas | 2:46 PM
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