WillG

Are We Raising a Generation of Wimps?

I have been listening to Opie and Anthony on XM this morning and they have been in a long discussion about (in mainly sports) about limiting peoples performance to make everyone seem equal and to eliminate competition and to lessen the concept of "Winners and Losers." Some of the examples that people have called in with included not keeping score in sporting competitions and having manditory benching of players that excel after they reach a certain amount of points. One of the problems of this is that it creates false hopes for people who are just not athletically gifted. There was also mention of schools that allow students to have unlimited retakes of exams until they can eeke out a passing grade because the school is not allowed to give out Fs.

Are we raising a generation of wimps by discouraging competition and trying to make everyone "equal" and encouraging "no losers" mentality. Opie made a comment where he said about the younger generations "Good luck dealing with China" Which actually seemed a bit chilling to me. Maybe things are being exaggerated a bit, but it does make me think

Does anyone here have any examples they have seen of dumbing down competition and/or trying to unnaturally "equalize" people who just, as a fact of life, have different talents and abilities?

JonZ

"Are we raising a generation of wimps"

Yes and its been happening for a long time. When did we become a country of whiners?

Mark Sherman

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=50434



This made my Blood BOIL when I read It.

Making the world a better Place one Plasma and LCD at a time

Steve Ridges

Unbelieveable Mark. Whats the matter with people??

JonZ

Note:
I did not write this, it was sent to me from someone at work in a email. It just seemed to fit with the thread so I copied and pasted it here.




"To all the people who survied the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoke and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because we were always outside playing!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms.......... we had friends and we went outside and found them.

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told what would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!

The idea of a parent bailing us out of Jail if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

And YOU are one of them. C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S!

Wasn't it great to grow up as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it? "

Mark Sherman

I remeber growing up and going out to PLAY. My friends and I would come home covered in mud, with scrathes, bumps and Bruises and we had FUN. I have no Idea whats the matter with people. And the way kids act in Public is Just out of friggen control.

Making the world a better Place one Plasma and LCD at a time

danDo

Watching parents who grew up in a 'protected environment' raise monsters instead of kids is bad enough, I don't want to see what the next generation will be like.

Mark Sherman

JONZ I remember about 90% of what you listed. My old neighborhood had all these old trails and paths that went out for miles with swamps,hills, pine groves it was a mini eco system surrounding my house. We would go out for Hours and hours riding everywhere in those trails without ever seeing a car or anybody else for that matter.


We would play WAR in the pinegrove, look for pollywogs frogs and snakes in the swamp and make Jumps for our Bikes at the bottom of the hill for some serious AIR. Saturdays after soccer were the best. Oh and Speaking of soccer. I had to try out for the team and we did infact have winners and losers.

Making the world a better Place one Plasma and LCD at a time

Linda Thompson

My very first broken bone happened when I was about 8 years old...3rd day of summer vacation...playing King Of The Hill with my two male cousins and all the other neighborhood boys. (I was the only female in my crowd, so I was, of necessity, guite a tomboy.) My older cousin de-throned me and was immediately de-throned himself, at which point he accidentally rolled over top of me and broke my collar bone. It was a really fun summer vacation with the arm-straight-out cast, but I survived it. I also continued to play King Of The Hill...and everything else...after I healed. Wouldn't trade all of that for ANYTHING.

My very first tetanus shot was necessitated by my stepping on a rusty nail in the stable. It entered the bottom of my foot and came out the top. Ouch. But I survived, and I continued to ride, to care for my horse, and...believe it or not...I actually learned...the HARD way...to WEAR FREAKIN' SHOES IN THE STABLE like my parents had always told me.

We made mistakes, and we had accidents. We also survived them and learned from them. I pity today's kids who aren't allowed those opportunities.

But...full disclosure...I am NOT a parent. My feelings might change if I were...but I would hope not.

Chu Gai

Some of the schools have programs where 'close enough' answers in math are deemed correct. There was also a school that was recently in the news (Florida?) where they refused to have a valedictorian citing the reason that the race was just too close between two very talented students.