I honestly can believe that this has finally happened, a 9-year-old is so much better than the rest of his piers that he must be banned from baseball. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3553475 Let’s not pretend that we couldn’t see this coming. You see, it all started with those stupid participation ribbons they started handing out to all the kids on each team even though they did nothing to deserve recognition. I was absolutely stunned to find this out several years ago when I enrolled my own son for baseball. His team won just a few games, only but one or two kids stood out by their play, yet at the end of the season all the parents were hit up for a $20 bill to pay for trophies and prizes. I of course had the temerity to ask, “why?” After all, back in the day, there was one trophy handed out at the end of the season, and that trophy went to the first place team, and the coach was the one who got to keep it. What was funny about that was, no one cared, rather, they all knew that was the way it was supposed to be. Fast forward a few years (okay, many, many more years) and imagine my surprise at having to fork over an extra $20 for participation awards for all the players on a bottom of the league team! What I failed to notice, was that this was the way of the “new generation.” The children of today apparently are all suffering from low self-esteem and they are in need of constant affirmation that they are “special” and deserving of awards for things they never worked hard to earn.
So now you see my point, right? We got here at this point where we are penalizing 9-year-olds because of superiority by making a practice of rewarding mediocrity. It started by telling all the kids they were good even if they were not, telling them they were valuable to the team even if they didn’t spend a moment outside of practice and games working to get better, and affirming their effort whether they played hard or not during the game. Once mediocrity is the norm, excellence will always end up being penalized, because as soon as someone stands out above everyone else, then he will be made to be a villain because he is damaging the self-esteem of all the other kids.
This unfortunate story ought to be a national wake-up call. We are rearing a generation of cry-babies and underachievers who are bloated with self-esteem while mediocre in performance. Don’t tell me that this mentality won’t spill out into other areas of life either, because it will. We are currently undergoing a cultural revolution in the work place and academy due to the effects of this “awards for all participants” mentality that has been practiced now for the last 15—20 years in this country. So, I for one am hopeful that this embarrassing national story over penalizing an overachiever will finally shame us into our senses and cause us to realize that the only way we will get better as a nation is if we only reward excellence in achievement and effort in order to motivate people to move out of mediocrity.
I say, let little Jericho play. So what if he strikes out every 9-year-old in his league. Maybe that will cause the rest of those kids to try harder so they can hit him next year when they are 10. In the mean time, as they make that long lonely walk from home plate to the dugout with a bat on their shoulder after striking out, they will learn an important lesson in life, that hard work and sharpened skill acquired through drilling the mechanics of a good swing, will not only help them get that bat on the ball, but will also be a lesson on how to get ahead in life.
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The children of today apparently are all suffering from low self-esteem and they are in need of constant affirmation that they are “special” and deserving of awards for things they never worked hard to earn.
Editing:
The children of today are all suffering from self-esteem being drilled out of them, so that constant affirmation is necessary as a means to control now and on into adult-hood.
John, you hit it right on the button. I heard it said once that a nation fails in educating and training its own when we bring down culture to its lowest common denominator. Instead of, like you said, chastising this little guy we should reward him and bring a major league scout to one of his games.
I got this excerpt from www.nationofwimps.com, a great read.
"Armed with hyperconcern and microscrutiny, parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the lumps and bumps out of life for their children today. However well-intentioned, their efforts have the net effect of making kids more fragile. That may be why the young are breaking down in record numbers or staying stuck in endless adolescence.
What's more, parents are seeking status and meaning in the achievements of their children. The trouble with turning tots into trophies is that the developmental needs of the young are sacrificed to the psychological needs of adults. But the biggest problem with pushing perfection may be that it masks the real secret of success in life. As any innovator will tell you, success hinges less on getting everything right than on how you handle getting things wrong. The ultimate irony is, in a flat world you don't make kids competitive by pushing them to be perfect but by allowing them to become passionate about something that compels their interest."
Vic,
I like that nation of wimps quote, I am going to have to check that site out.
jsaw
Lawrence,
So help me connect the dots here... I think I see them but just to be sure, what do you mean when you say "constant affirmation" is a means of control?
jsaw
Affirmation of children is not a bad thing. Healthy self-esteem comes from personal achievement, not from surrogate encourangement despite achievement.
Drilling self-esteem out of children so that you can then train them to be dependent on your own brand of affirmation to fulfill their self-esteem needs is cult mind-set brainwashing, for the most part.
A question for the well-versed: Was self-esteem mentioned or even alluded to in scripture? Was "affirmation" even addressed by Christ? If so, how?
How I view it currently is that the issue of self-esteem is one of worldly influence for the most part. Scriptural references general adress Hope.
I suppose we could just as easily say that:
The children of today are all suffering from Hope (and in the case of Christians, Christ) being drilled out of them, for subsitution by other worldly affirmations (and/or gods).
I don't think that biblical revelation is opposed to the concept of natural self-esteem. It doesn't preach self-esteem, although some think they have found it in the command to "love your neighbor as yourself" and argue that we are commanded to love ourselves. To me that is an over-reading of the text and an imposition of modern psychological theories on to the text.
I believe that when it comes to children and young people in sports, they need to be told that they must earn confidence in their abilities. It does nothing but bloat the ego to simply build up self-esteem through positive reinforcement if they are never challenged to work hard, master technique, and use it in competition against others. When they do that and actually defeat opponents then they have an earned sense of self-confidence that will usually permeate the rest of their endeavors.
Correct me if I'm wrong but the only inkling of "self-esteem" I observe in the scripture attributed to the fallen race is based on the fact that we are made in God's image. In other words whatever esteem we may have is not inherent to ourselves but derived from God.
For the Christian, on the other hand, it is my humble opinion that whatever esteem, hope, confidence, etc is derived from the fact that we belong to Christ and it is through him who gives us strength that we can do anything (Phil 3:13).
Vic states: "For the Christian, on the other hand, it is my humble opinion that whatever esteem, hope, confidence, etc is derived from the fact that we belong to Christ and it is through him who gives us strength that we can do anything (Phil 3:13).
I completely agree.
This is exactly why the secular world strives so diligently to drive Christian esteem, hope, and confidence out of us us at the youngest age. To then substitute a twisted worldly version of the same.
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