Healthy Competition and Political correctness: What is causing the damage?

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 A recent article reports that a librarian at a New York Library wants to ban a student from participating in a book reading contest because he has won the contest 5 times in a row. The child followed all the rules but the problem according to the librarian is that the other kids get discouraged and drop out. I am deeply disturbed that we are becoming a nation that cannot handle the challenges of healthy competition. In this life we will face competition on one level or another so it would be best if we learned those lessons as early as possible.

The commenters were no better in responding to this story. I found  some of these responses absolutely disgusting! If this child followed the rules, did what he was supposed to do, then he won fair and square. Should he be responsible if  other kids decided to drop out?  He did not bully or threaten them to not read, the decision to drop out lies with them no matter what the  reason. One commenter said that the child should be "Gracious" and step aside and let another kids get a chance to win. Excuse me?? Well welcome to the politically correct generation where if your kid does not  make the cut then we need to get rid of the excelling kid that is standing in his or her way.  Even if we have to try to get them killed like the Texas Cheerleader mom.

When I was this child's age in the late 1970's if you did not win, you tried  again. Our parents did not threaten to shoot someone or sue the school. They did speak up if there were unfair practices going on, but if it was a fair and square loss, we had to suck it up. They let us cry or pout for a moment, then it was time to move on. Nowadays, competition is a bad word,  and if anyone makes our child feel bad about themselves, then we sue the school! We have to give every kid a trophy because after all "everybody is a winner" why? because the silence of somenone's defeat is a sound we cannot bear to hear. In this life we win  and we lose and these parents and some of these commenters have lost touch with that and as a result we have a generation of kids who have no endurance power through setbacks, defeats, and failure. Not winning is a bitter pill to swallow, I understand, really.  One defeat amongst others I have experienced was that I was the first runner-up in the Miss Plus America Pageant a few years ago. I wanted that crown on my head badly! No one practices and prepares to be 1st runner up in anything, you prepare and practice to WIN, but sometimes it is not in the cards and you have to move on. When those times come when you are in the victory circle, victory is sweet, savor the moment fully, but we have to be ready win or lose and be gracious about it.

If an athlete at the Olympics wins in a competition more than once, the Olympic committee does not say to them " well you have to be gracious and step down and let Bulgaria, Russia, and Japan have a shot at it." NOPE Bulgaria and the rest have to keep at it until they place, but in our entitled self serving world, our solution in dealing with defeat  when  theere is a kid ahead  of our kid in the bike race of life is to get rid of  the other kid by trying to get them disqualified, accuse him of using steroids, cheating, having a better bike, flatten their tires, etc.  to get him  or her out of the way by any means necessary. It seems today that many parents would rather dole out blame than hold their child to a higher standard of excellence. The better way to help our kids  is to help them prepare and practice harder to win in their own right and win or lose display good sportsmanship in the process.