Palmer Blevins Blog

Was watching an old episode of How I Met Your Mother, where Lilly gets her husband to coach her kindergarten class in basektball; but she gets mad when he is really rough on them and tells him that they don’t keep score, that winning isn’t everything, and that everybody gets a trophy.

With all the school shootings that have taken place since 1996, I can’t help but think that this philosophy is part of the problem. It seems that kids are not taught the skills necessary to survival in school: they are babied, led to believe that they are entitled to everything, that failure is fine, and that everyone likes them because they are special, etc. And then the real world sets in.

They realize that life doesn’t look kindly on failure, that mommy was wrong when she said everyone likes you because you’re special, that in life there is competition, that you will suffer heartache and hurt feelings, and not everyone gets a trophy for merely participating. Not being able to cope, they decide to go to school and shoot up what they see as the source of their problems.

Granted, being too hard on kids is not the answer, neither is baby-ing them. There has to be a middle ground. No, winning isn’t everything but the spirit of competition needs to be instilled so a kid knows that when life knocks you on your ass, you pick yourself up, learn from your mistakes and keep playing. A kid needs to know that he/she is special, with certain skills, talents, etc., but that kid also needs to know that there are other kids who will target him/her; thus little Johnnie or Susie needs to learn how to cope. A kid needs to know that there is support out there, but also needs to know that sometimes your friends/family will ditch you for their own selfish reasons and sometimes you need to walk alone. A kid needs to know that there are good things in this world, but it is not all sunshine and lollipops.