Cleats by Bill Hinds for January 31, 2021

When I ran the cub scout pinewood derby, we purchased ribbons for win/place/show and a couple of special categories. They always sent us “I Did My Best” ribbons. I saw them as “I’m not good enough to win” ribbons and put them in the round file.

Participation awards are nothing but an excuse to make losers feel good.

No trophy? Guess you’ll have to do better next time.

Smart kid. Too bad adults are so stupid…..

Just goes to show that woke adults don’t get that kids appreciate hard work and winning. Good on ya, Hinds.

As a former Little League Coach, Manager, League President and Basketball coach, PARTICIPATION Trophies are the worst invention of Millenials. Take it from a boomer, failure is the driving force of success.

Here is great analysis of what this crap did to kids. .. https://www.zendesk.com/blog/entry-level-syndrome-and-the-participation-trophy-generation/

You guys miss the point of “participation trophies”. They’re not supposed to be used later on in a kid’s career: they are only there to provide positive feedback and encourage them to continue past those initial stages. Once they’re past the basics, awards are supposed to take some effort to achieve — if not, you’re using them wrong.

Even the adult world has its version of participation trophies. Military good conduct medals (“Congratulations! You participated and didn’t screw up too badly”) and campaign ribbons ("Congratulations! You were there) come to mind.