I’m all for everyone feeling validated and everything, but a wee bit of healthy competition motivates humans to work harder. I consider this especially true for kids around my son’s age, 10.

If you’re a child, and the first-place winner of any given competition—spelling bees to soccer games—receives the same prize as the kid who came in last, where are you supposed to find motivation?

You might say motivation is supposed to come from within, not an external source. But to me, that’s adult speak, really.

Rewards are earned. In the real world of day jobs and cube mates, you’re typically not applauded for subpar work. Perform that way long enough, and you might end up out. Imagine an office full of people conditioned to believe that just showing up was a hard day’s work. (Actually, I assume you can imagine that pretty easily.)

An environment like that isn’t conducive to achieving great things. Average things, sure. But we want more for our kids than average, more than simple participation.