You know what grinds my gears....You America.....F@$K you America!
Sorry, just been watching Stewie Griffin, the untold story. Anyway, lets talk about something that has been bugging me recently (yes here we go, a return to form of ranting political and social issues). Just from watching TV or reading newspapers we can see that modern society has taken this view that achievement is unfair, well more so solo achievement. Telling a kid he didn’t win anything at speech day has become a social taboo. It’s become all about building everyone’s self esteem up, making the kids feel special. Predominantly they are not, it’s a harsh reality and I do believe that every person has a talent. But it is not the place of the schools to tell them that they are all capable of everything. For me a school’s role, in part, is figure out what each kids talent is and nurture that, even if it isn’t orthodox. But they are lead to believe they can achieve..then they got out of the education system and realize, what the hell, I cant do shit. We are leading the youth to an inevitable let down. I call it the Ribbon phenomenon, or the participation ideals….who gives a crap if you took part. Your efforts are what should be counted. Pay attention the word I used though, “efforts”, not winning or losing, the effort, putting something in.
Could you imagine this kind of attitude in the work force?
“Gary!, just saw the overnights from the shanghai account. Nice work, I think you deserve a promotion for your constant exemplary work”
“Geoff, congratulation on making the coffee by yourself today. How about a promotion?”
“Linda! On time 3 times this week, here is your promotion”
Its crazy, but this is what is happening in our school systems. Ribbons for everyone who took part in sports day, we are all winners in life! No, no were not, and these kids are gonna find that out, and mark my words, bad things will be the result.
And if you look at it this way, if everyone gets the same recognition, where is the incentive for a kid to do better, or find something that they are better at then someone else. To steal an idea from Greg Giraldo, do you think there would be a Microsoft if Bill Gates was accepted and told he was a normal kid? Normality suffocates creativity! “you gotta spend a lot of time stuffed in your own locker before u decided IM GONNA TAKE OVER THE WORLD WITH COMPUTERS, YOU’LL SEE!”. He realized that he wasn’t good at being cool or partaking in sports, so he found on his own, something that he could do better than anyone else. That is what our schools should be doing.
Ok, I’m done.